The State has been or­dered to pay more than $1 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion to two men who were false­ly ac­cused on so­cial me­dia of hav­ing sex in a car af­ter their ar­rest for breach­ing a Covid-19 cur­few.

On Thurs­day, High Court Judge Joan Charles award­ed $625,000 to each man as she up­held their li­bel and ma­li­cious false­hood claim against the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and a po­lice of­fi­cer who took a pho­to­graph of them af­ter their ar­rest.

While the men and the of­fi­cer were iden­ti­fied in court fil­ings, their names will be with­held due to the na­ture of the case and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of an ap­peal.