'Hurtful' blogger loses house

Cameron Slater, known as Whale Oil. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The wife of prominent blogger Whale Oil says mental health problems are driving his internet behaviour - which has included a campaign to break suppression orders and insult people online.

Juana Atkins also says husband Cameron Slater has "no thought of the consequences for himself or others or indeed his family" when he makes his online attacks.

The emotional outburst was sparked by the couple's forced sale of their East Auckland family home. The house was sold after Slater's insurance payments for depression were canned by insurer Fidelity Life.

"The house is gone, there is nothing left," Slater wrote under the persona Whale Oil on his Gotcha blog.

It was followed by a post from Atkins stating: "You have a wife who loves you, kids who adore you and a number of truly great friends. We will always have a home because a house does not make a home. A family does."

That elicited little sympathy from one reader, who said Slater had shown little thought for the family of deceased King's College student James Webster this month.

The controversial blog post had followed police charges after Slater printed and hinted at a string of names of people before the courts who had name suppression.

In response, Atkins wrote: "I do not have the power to stop him. It is because he is clinically depressed that he says and does out-there things. He was nothing like this before he became ill.

"He shoots from the hip with no thought of the consequences for himself for others or indeed his family. The very fact that he says hurtful things that show a total lack of empathy is the evidence that he is seriously ill.

"He watches me cry my eyes out again and again and it moves him not one iota. You want me to be upset that he has hurt others? I am too busy dealing with his lack of empathy towards me."

Slater said he had seen the post by Atkins and did not want to comment further.

He said the family were moving into cheaper rental accommodation.