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Harassment, blackmail, sextortion
Have you been the victim of hurtful and untrue comments online? We are here to help.
HARASSMENT, BLACKMAIL, SEXTORTION - Revenge Porn, Sextortion, and Online Blackmail
HARASSMENT, BLACKMAIL, SEXTORTION
The claimant and the defendant were both young professionals who resided in London with their respective families. They met via a dating app for what was mutually intended to be a casual sexual encounter. In the event, a long-term intimate relationship developed. However, the claimant’s attempt to extricate herself from that relationship led the defendant to access and copy an extensive number of private materials from the claimant’s phone which included various naked images of the claimant and images of both the claimant and the defendant engaging intimately. The defendant used the private materials to blackmail the claimant into continuing their relationship with threats to release the materials.
We obtained an emergency ex parte injunction for the claimant, preventing the defendant from disclosing the private material and contacting the claimant. The claimant also reported the matter to the Police because alongside the civil proceedings, the police had decided to investigate and charge the defendant with revenge porn. The defendant was relieved that her images were not posted on the internet because we had obtained the injunction so quickly. The client was also awarded her legal costs.
BLACKMAIL, SEXTORTION
Our client was a young lady who had fallen into relationship with a member of her security team. The contract with the security team was to be terminated but in order to ensure that the contract would continue, the member of the security team with whom she had had a relationship started to threaten and blackmail our client. He told her that he would reveal sensitive and sexually explicit images and conversations between him and her; the conversations were WhatsApp conversations. Other members of the team also started to blackmail and threaten the client in order to hold onto the contract.
When our client came to us, she had assumed she needed a bespoke confidentiality agreement for the member of the security team who was threatening her. We quickly realised that she needed an emergency injunction to prevent publication of damaging private material.
We managed to obtain the injunction within three days of being instructed and served it on the defendants on day three. We also obtained our clients costs in the matter.
REVENGE PORN, BLACKMAIL, HARASMMENT AND THREATS
We were approached by a professional in the field of education. Whilst married, he had been in a relationship with a lady (Defendant) who resided in Europe. The two had sent each other many private messages using WhatsApp. They also sent each other videos and intimate images. After being in a relationship for a few years, the Defendant became angry and threatened to inform our client’s wife of their relationship. The Defendant also threatened to send their private images to our client’s wife, her employers and his current and past employers. Our client pleaded with the Defendant not to disclose private information and misuse it because of the devasting impact in him and his family. However, the Defendant would not listen and continued with her threats.
We were engaged to deal with the Defendant and write a very detailed letter of claim. We also engaged lawyers in Europe to write to the Defendant in her local language.
The outcome was successful as no images were posted and the matter was mediated, so all images were erased and destroyed from all the Defendant’s devices. Had the Defendant been in the UK jurisdiction and the English Court, we would have obtained an emergency injunction to prevent the posting of images and revenge porn.
BULLYING, DEFAMATION AND HARASSMENT
We were approached by the parents of a young man who was subjected to highly false and defamatory allegations at school. He had been referred to on Instagram and Snapchat as a paedophile and a rapist. The posts were made by a previous student (Defendant). We wrote to the Defendant and received undertakings that he would not repeat the allegations complained about, he would remove all the defamatory materials, and he would not contact our client again or comment on our client’s name. This was an important step taken by the child’s parents. Our client’s parent wanted to ensure that their child’s mental health and future would not be impacted by false claims.
We were engaged to ensure that it did not happen again, and we did so successfully.
Who Do I Sue for Internet Defamation?
The law is complex. Our focus in every case is to get the offending material taken down as quickly as we can. This includes seeking urgent removal from search engine results.
Our first step is to approach the person who posted the material (if known). We will also approach the publisher – the website operator or host – who may have an interest in removing material because of their potential liability under UK defamation law.
Our initial letter will:
State the precise nature of the defamation
Request the immediate removal of the material from all internet locations in which it appears
Indicate our intention to instigate legal proceedings if our requests are not met
Online Defamation Frequently Asked Questions
What is defamation?
What if the words were said to me?