The State has been or­dered to pay over $1 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion to two men, who were ac­cused of hav­ing sex in a car on so­cial me­dia af­ter they were ar­rest­ed for breach­ing a cur­few dur­ing the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic.

On Thurs­day, High Court Judge Joan Charles or­dered $625,000 in com­pen­sa­tion for each of the men as she up­held a li­bel and ma­li­cious false­hood case brought against the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and the po­lice of­fi­cer who al­leged­ly took a pho­to­graph of them af­ter their ar­rest.

While the men and the of­fi­cer were iden­ti­fied in the court fil­ings, their names were with­held by this news­pa­per based on the na­ture of the case and the fact that it may be ap­pealed.