Privacy

24.01.16

£25,000 damages awarded in sexting claim

In ABC v West Heath 2000 Ltd & Anor [2015] EWHC 2687 (QB) the High Court awarded damages to the Claimant who, as a 16 year old schoolgirl, had been encouraged to send explicit photographs of herself to her teacher.  18 text messages were exchanged between the pupil and her teacher over the course of a year, with 20 photographs…

6.11.15

Revenge Porn blackmail suspended sentence held too lenient by Court of Appeal

In Attorney General’s Reference (No.84 of 2015) sub nom R v Jamie Gabriel (2015) the Court of Appeal considered the appropriateness of a two-year prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, imposed for blackmail. The Defendant Mr Gabriel had commenced an online relationship with the married victim, where they had shared intimate pictures, ultimately culminating in their meeting…

4.11.15

Misuse of Private Information: ICO fines CPS £200,000 following theft of sex attack victims' interview videos

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been fined £200,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to take adequate data protection steps to ensure that video interviews of sex attack victims were stored securely. Interviews of 43 victims and witnesses were stored on two laptops that were stolen in a burglary in September 2014.  The videos were in the process…

30.10.15

Iain Wilson interviewed by The Tab on how the internet can turn against you through Cyberbullying

Brett Wilson LLP partner Iain Wilson features in the latest edition of the UK’s biggest student newspaper The Tab in an article by Bob Palmer on how the internet can turn against you.  A copy of the article can be found here.  

26.10.15

Burrell v Clifford: Limitation and Triviality in Breach of Confidence and Breach of Privacy Claims

The former royal butler, Paul Burrell, is suing Max Clifford, the publicist (now serving a custodial sentence for various indecent assaults), for breaching his confidence and his privacy.  In In Burrell v Clifford [2015] EWHC 2001 (Ch) Mr Justice Mann heard an application by Clifford to strike out the claim on the basis that it…

High Court grants injunction after celebrity revenge porn threat

In JPH v XYZ [2015] EWHC 2871 Mr Justice Popplewell considered an emergency application for an  injunction to restrain the publication of intimate images.  The application was made after the Defendant threatened to publish photographs and videos of the Claimant (a successful actor) which were of a sexual nature and created whilst they were in a relationship. The Defendant had threatened to post the videos and…

12.09.15

First woman convicted of revenge porn offence narrowly avoids jail

Paige Mitchell, aged 24, has become the first woman to be convicted under the new revenge porn laws that were brought into effect in April this year.  She had posted four explicit images of her ex-partner, which had been sent to her in the course of their relationship, on Facebook after an argument in May…

4.06.15

Iain Wilson interviewed by Cosmopolitan

Brett Wilson LLP Partner Iain Wilson features as a legal expert in Cosmopolitan magazine’s guide to tackling revenge porn.   A copy of the article can be found here.  

29.03.15

Court of Appeal greenlights Data Protection Act claims for distress where no other loss

The Court of Appeal has handed down a landmark judgment in Vidal-Hall v Google Inc [2015] EWCA Civ 311 – a decision eagerly awaited by media and Data Protection practitioners. The Claimants in the action are a group of individuals who use the ‘Safari’ web browser. They claim that between Summer 2011 and February 2012…

17.02.15

'Revenge porn' criminalised in England and Wales

‘Revenge porn’, the term coined for the unauthorised sharing of private sexual photographs or videos, often carried out by spurned lovers over the medium of the Internet, has been criminalised in England and Wales under the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (‘the Act’) which received Royal Assent on 12 February 2015. When the provisions…