A Fraser Valley teacher says he was devastated by the actions of his neighbour, who was ordered to pay him $67,500 after making false allegations on Facebook that suggested he was a pedophile.

Middle-school music teacher Douglas Pritchard was the subject of a viral social media post written by his neighbour Katherine Van Nes in 2014.

Van Nes claimed that Pritchard was spying on her children, and that he had set up cameras and mirrors to be able to watch them. Others commented on the post, calling him a "creeper" and a "pedo."

"This is devastating, not only to me but to my wife and my two sons, to have my name attached to that word," Pritchard said Friday of the pedophile comment.

Pritchard spoke to CTV News two days after a judge ruled that his neighbour would have to pay him tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

On Wednesday, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled that the posts were "completely false and unjustified," and that they had a devastating effect on Pritchard's career.

The judge's ruling described the deteriorating relationship between Pritchard and Van Nes, which took a turn for the worse in 2011. Pritchard approached Van Nes about turning off a water feature in her backyard pond, saying that the noise was keeping his wife up at night.

Following the complaint, there were a "number of incidents of unneighbourly conduct," the judge wrote in his ruling.

Pritchard and his wife filed complaints about late-night parties, vehicles blocking his driveway and Van Nes’s dog defecating in their yard.

Van Nes told the court that the Facebook post was her way of "venting," and that she had removed the comments after about 27 hours. Though the comments were removed, the post was shared several times and the copies remained.

"Those rumours will always persist," Pritchard said.

At least one child was removed from his music class, and Pritchard said he feels that he has lost the trust of parents and students.

He also told the court he felt frightened that he might be confronted or threatened.

"The seriousness of Ms. Van Nes's defamatory Facebook post, her replies, and the comments of her 'friends' cannot be overstated," the judge wrote.

Van Nes was ordered to pay Pritchard $67,500 in damages, and to turn off the waterfall in the backyard pond every day between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

"The lesson is to think before you write," defamation and privacy lawyer Daniel Reid said of the case.

"The law says that people's reputation is entitled to protection, and if you publish something that damages someone's reputation, you could be sued."

Van Nes told CTV News that she's since advised her children to keep their opinions off social media.

"Things you say, as well as the things others say in reply to your post, can be more damaging than your original intent," she said in a phone interview.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's St. John Alexander