Graham Bloxham also accused Justin Lester of misconduct towards council staff
Wellington District Court judge Andrew Nicholls has ordered local personality Graham Bloxham to publicly apologise to former Wellington mayor Justin Lester for a wave of insults the former made about the latter online, reported the NZ Herald.
Judge Andrew Nicholls determined that Bloxham's actions violated the Harmful Digital Communications Act. Bloxham, who operated the Wellington Live Facebook page, had called Lester a “molester”, “a tedious liar” and a “creepy thief” in online media, per the Herald. He also accused Lester of misconduct toward young women on staff at the council and of abusing Bloxham and his family.
Submissions made by Lester to the court showed over a dozen examples of Bloxham’s social media posts as well as emails sent to Lester’s business acquaintances containing such comments. Lester said the comments were “defamatory statements, gossip, rumour, innuendo and just outright lies”, per a statement published by the Herald.
Bloxham had reportedly begun making the comments after Lester set up his Wellington Alive Facebook page. Lester, currently a director at technology consultancy firm DOT loves data, became aware of the comments when friends and business acquaintances outside Wellington called him seeking clarification regarding Bloxham’s accusations.
The judge noted in snippets of the ruling published by the Herald that Bloxham’s comments included “accusations of corruption, dishonesty, improper political motives, and theft” as well as “derogatory personal insults, with references to pornography and sexual impropriety”.
In September 2025, the court issued an interim order prohibiting Bloxham from posting about Lester; however, Lester’s submissions showed that Bloxham defied the order. Lester told the court during a hearing on Wednesday 5 August that he had suffered emotional distress and professional and reputational damage as a result.
Lester claimed that recently, Bloxham confronted him at a Wuthering Heights event in the city library. Lester described Bloxham’s conduct as “unhinged and concerning”, per the Herald, and expressed concern that Bloxham would invade his home.
Nicholls pointed out that Bloxham’s defiance of the court order constituted a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of six months’ jail time or a $5,000 fine. The judge issued an order for Bloxham to remove all digital communications made or disseminated about Lester.
The personality was to provide a written apology to the former mayor and send it to everyone on the Wellington Live distribution list. Bloxham was also prohibited from posting or sending communications about Lester moving forward.
Nicholls acknowledged that the suggestion of a breach “was not considered or demonstrated to the criminal standard” given the information he had. He stated that the court would forward his ruling to the Wellington Police Prosecution Service.
Lester said he would seek police action, per the Herald.
Bloxham did not file submissions to the court on this matter; nor did he show at the 5 August hearing. He told the Herald that he was in Christchurch on business and seemed uninformed of the hearing.
He told the Herald on the evening of 5 August that he did not know the outcome of the matter. After being informed of Nicholls’ decision, Bloxham said he would “respect the court’s decision”.
Lester was Wellington mayor from 2016 to 2019. Bloxham had a run at the mayoralty but dropped out and filed a nomination to stand.
