Central West Leadership Academy Principal Mandi Randell attempted to sue former Dubbo council election candidate Karina McLachlain for a Facebook comment she made back in August 2021.

Her comment related to a Sunday Telegraph article which focused on airing a number of concerns and allegations a group of parents had about Ms Randell.

The article was shared in community Facebook groups, including 'Dubbo Wellington Thumbs Up Thumbs Down' where Ms McLachlain was formerly an administrator.

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Ms Randell's solicitor sent a text message to Ms McLachlain complaining of the "highly defamatory" posts about his client being made, warning her she could be liable if she did not take the posts down.

A NSW District Court judgement states that Ms McLachlain took the posts down as requested and put a note on the site to tell readers why, including a screenshot of Ms Randell's solicitor's messages.

However she also added, "About a week ago I received this threat from Mandi Randell's lawyer. I deleted the post but I cannot support the cover up of child abuse. As a community we must stand up for the children who have been traumatised."

Although Ms McLachlain removed her comment a few days later, a year later Ms Randell sued for damages, alleging in court documents that the comment carried defamatory imputations, including that Ms Randell abused children, caused them trauma, engaged in child abuse and sought to cover up it up.

Ms Randell has consistently denied wrongdoing and the school's board maintained support for her after it reportedly conducted investigations into the parents' concerns.

According to court documents, Ms Randell claimed Ms McLachlain's comment caused her serious harm to her reputation.

On October 27 this year, Judge Judith Gibson dismissed the case against Ms McLachlain and ordered Ms Randell to pay her costs.

Explaining her reasons, Judge Gibson said Ms Randell had served Ms McLachlain with legal documents that were invalid.

"The particulars in the statement of claim do not explain what the 'harm' is at all, let alone how it is 'serious' either in the past or in the future, and how the serious harm arises from this publication," Judge Gibson said.

Despite Ms Randell's assertion of damage to her reputation in a small community, Judge Gibson said she was unable to give evidence of even one instance of such an event occurring.

Ms Randell's lawyer claimed the dramatic and newsworthy nature of the initial story meant the readers of the Facebook page would be certain to click on and read.

However Judge Gibson found while that may be true for an "eye-catching newspaper article such as the Sunday Telegraph article appearing in earlier posts", she said the three-sentence comment being complained of does little to attract the attention of the reader scrolling past.