SENIOR judges are to begin hearing an appeal by a pro-independence blogger who lost a £25,000 defamation action against Kezia Dugdale.

Stuart Campbell, who runs the website Wings Over Scotland, attempted to sue the former Scottish Labour leader last year after she accused him of writing “homophobic tweets”.

But following a three-day hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Sheriff Nigel Ross ruled Ms Dugdale did not have to pay damages.

He found that although she was incorrect to imply Mr Campbell was a homophobe in her Daily Record column, the article was covered by the defence of fair comment.

He later ordered Mr Campbell to pay Ms Dugdale’s full legal expenses – plus a 50 per cent “uplift”. 

Mr Campbell’s appeal against the decision will be heard in the Inner House of the Court of Session tomorrow.

A court spokeswoman said it will be "the first virtual court hearing in Scotland where the three judges, clerk and the representatives for each party will be in different locations".

The unusual set up is part of measures to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

The legal row centres on a tweet Mr Campbell, 52, sent in March 2017.

He wrote that the former Scottish Secretary David Mundell’s son, the Tory MSP Oliver Mundell, was “the sort of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner”.

David Mundell came out as gay in 2016.

Writing in her Daily Record column a few days later, Ms Dugdale said she was “shocked and appalled to see a pro-independence blogger’s homophobic tweets”, and accused Wings Over Scotland of spouting “hatred and homophobia towards others”.

Mr Campbell denied he is homophobic and insisted her comments were defamatory. He called the claims “self-evidently ludicrous”.

Sheriff Ross ruled: “Despite incorrectly implying that Mr Campbell is homophobic, [Ms Dugdale’s] article is protected under the principle of fair comment.

“She is not liable to pay damages to Mr Campbell.”

He said Mr Campbell had suffered “no quantifiable financial or other loss as a result of the article”, and the value of any loss “would have been quantified at £100”.

Ms Dugdale later said she was “as close to a breakdown” as she has ever been during the defamation battle.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the former MSP said she feared losing everything when the Labour Party decided to withdraw its funding for her defence.

She is now director of the John Smith Centre for Public Service at Glasgow University.