Sacha Baron Cohen Defeats $95 Million Defamation Case Over 'Paedophile Detector'

Sacha Baron Cohen has won a legal challenge against former US Supreme Court of Alabama Justice, Roy Moore, after the Borat star waved him down with a 'paedophile detector'.

Moore launched a $95 million ($AUD 138.7 million, £78.7 million) defamation suit against the actor after appearing on Cohen's satirical TV show Who Is America? in 2018.

The failed Republican Senate candidate, who is known for his staunch opposition to gay marriage and his public display of the Ten Commandments, had been told by producers that he was receiving an award for supporting Israel. 

Of course, that's not what happened. Instead, Cohen appeared as one of his characters, Erran Morad, to discuss Israel's technological prowess, before showing off his 'paedophile detector'.

"It turns out sex offenders and particularly paedophiles secrete van enzyme 4D DHT, which is actually detectable," Cohen said to Moore during the segment.

"It's three times the level of non-perverts."

In 2017, the failed senate candidate had multiple women accuse him of sexual assault while they were teenagers and Moore was in his 30s, The Washington Post reports.

The former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama has refuted the allegations and no charges were ever brought against him, as per The Guardian.

However, the allegations were more than enough ammunition for Cohen to run with on his show. He waived the device over Moore and it started beeping wildly. 

Moore, who signed a disclosure agreement before appearing on camera, didn't take too kindly to the inference and walked off set pretty much straight away. 

Moore then claimed the waivers he signed before appearing on Cohen's show were unenforceable as they had been obtained under false pretences.

20th Century Studios, FilmFlex

He then sued Cohen, but the US District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the case.

He appealed and has now lost again. 

According to EW, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld the lower court's decision that the disclosure agreement was valid.

The three judges also decided that the 'obviously farcical' 'paedophile detector' segment was 'clearly comedy' and that 'no reasonable person could believe [the paedophile detector] to be an actual, functioning piece of technology', AP reports.

Moore, however, is having precisely none of it.

"For far too long the American people have been subjected to the antics of Sacha Baron Cohen," the Moore family told the Associated Press.

"His pusillanimous and fraudulent conduct must be stopped. We will appeal."

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