A jury found Michael Trkulja was defamed by the search results, which listed images of prominent gangland figure Tony Mokbel during searches for Mr Trkulja. A Melbourne resident, Mr Trkulja has lived in Australia for 42 years and never been involved in any criminal activity.
In 2004, Mr Trkulja was shot in the back at a restaurant during the height of Melbourne's gang wars. Police ruled the incident was not connected to the underworld feud, but the prominence of the case led to images of Mr Trkulja appearing on a now-defunct website called "Melbourne Crime".
Google's automatic search software linked Mr Trkulja's name to the website and placed his photo alongside Mr Mokbel in its Google Image results.
Mr Mokbel, one of the country's best-known criminals, was on the run for several years over his links to drug wars in Melbourne which claimed more than 30 lives. He was eventually captured in Greece in 2007 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in July for his role in running a drug cartel.
Mr Trkulja said he only decided to sue Google after he alerted the internet giant to the search error but it failed to respond. The Supreme Court jury found Google could rely on the defence of "innocent dissemination" but only up until it was alerted in 2009.
However, Mr Trkulja lost a separate claim over Google's link to the web page containing the defamatory content. The jury found Mr Trkulja failed to properly report the link using a form on Google's site.
Mr Trkulja said he had won a "David and Goliath" victory and claimed the search error had resulted in local restaurants shunning him.
"This has been a big long battle I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," he told the Herald Sun.
"This case is not about money, it's about protecting my family, my children and reputation."
Mr Trkulja reportedly won a similar case against Yahoo! in March and was awarded $225,000 in damages. Damages in the Google case are due to be awarded in two weeks.
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