Being a sex worker does not mean you can't have a private life, says judge as Cohen Davis obtains a privacy injunction for its escort client.

In yet another ground breaking case, Cohen Davis’ team has obtained one of our most important judgements this year, whilst securing a privacy injunction for one of our clients, a London Escort.

This case, involved a sex worker who had both false and private information posted about her on the internet. She became the subject of a campaign of harassment, which included the tagging of dozens of pornographic videos with her name. The harassing posts also included references to her sexuality, to her sexual preferences as well as false claims that she was having unprotected sex.

This followed by further false allegations that she was an HIV/Aids positive. Cohen Davis brought the proceedings and an application for a privacy injunction on behalf of our client, who was also granted by the High Court a right to anonymity. She is only know as GYH. Our privacy lawyers took the legal proceedings against "persons unknown" as, despite extensive efforts, we were unable to prove on balance of probabilities the identity of our client’s harasser.

This information might still come to light in the future. Granting an interim privacy injunction, Mr Justice Warby, sitting at the London High Court said that a privacy injunction was "amply justified" to restrain continued harassment of GYH and the misuse of private information about her. The clear message that was sent by the court was that those individuals who provide sexual services are not excluded from a right to have their privacy protected, regardless of the fact that they might be advertising themselves as sex worker.

Mr Justice Warby added that although sex workers who advertised their services on the internet might place some private information in the public domain, to which they may have no reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to that or similar information, there is no question of a person waiving her right to privacy in a particular zone of her private life, merely by publicising some information falling within that zone. In other words, just become someone advertises themselves as sex workers, doesn’t mean that every aspect of sexuality or sex activity can be published without their consent.

In relation to posts online alleging that someone who provides escort services, practised unsafe sex and had contracted HIV/Aids, yet continued to work, there was no justification of allowing such posts to be publicised as long as the information was untrue. The judge added: "There is no public interest in the distribution of false information of this kind, nor is it reasonable to publish false allegations to this effect. On the contrary." Each year Cohen Davis handles dozens of cases involving harassment and breach of privacy of sex workers. The number of our clients who belong to this group is constantly increasing. Sex workers in the UK form part of a particularly volnurable group of individuals. The popularity of the internet in recent years has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of individuals who provide sexual services online and offline. This includes actresses, models, escorts, and prostitutes. There is also a growing number of individuals who take unfair advantage of volnurable sex workers.

Cohen Davis has represented dozens of sex workers and has obtained numerous privacy injunctions in their favour. In some cases, we have been able to facilitate removal of explicit material from the internet, have copyright to it transferred to our clients and obtain compensations for our clients for breach of their privacy and for the distress they have suffered.

Sometimes individuals who perform in adult films, do so whilst highly vulnerable and at a low point in their lives. Some performers are humiliated and even gang raped on set and from that day onwards they are condemned to re-live their sexual assault on a daily basis through online porn sharing websites. Rape through porn happens when an individual agrees to participate in a pornographic film but in circumstances where their consent can be questioned.

Occasionally, they are not even capable of giving valid consent because they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol or they are fearful.

GYH v PERSONS UNKNOWN [2017] EWHC 3360 (QB)

Cohen Davis Solicitors acting for the Claimant

Being a sex worker and advertising yourself as such on the internet does not mean you can't have a private life, says judge as Cohen Davis obtains a privacy injunction for its escort client.

The client, who advertised herself as an escort hadn’t lost her right to keep information in relation to her sexuality private. Cohen Davis brought the proceedings and an application for a privacy injunction on behalf of our client, who was also granted by the High Court a right to anonymity. She is only known as GYH. Our privacy lawyers took the legal proceedings against "persons unknown" as, despite extensive efforts, we were unable to prove on balance of probabilities the identity of our client’s harasser.

In yet another ground-breaking case, Cohen Davis’ team has obtained one of our most important judgements of this year, whilst securing a privacy injunction for a client we care much about who works as a London Escort. Different people will find the judgement in this case significant for different reasons. If you are a business owner, or work in a business, it means that there should be a separation between your private life and your work life so far as the internet publications are concerned even if on occasions the two aspects of your life may overlap.

Those who provide personal services don’t necessarily have to compromise their right to private life, even if they advertise some aspects of their private life to support their commercial activities. In the case of GYH v PERSONS UNKNOWN, which involved a sex worker who had both false and private information posted about her on the internet, the judge also agreed that there was no public interest in having false information about someone published online, even if that information directly relates to the services the person provides to the public.

GYH became the subject of a campaign of harassment, which included, among other things, the tagging of dozens of pornographic videos with her name. The harassing posts also included references to her sexuality, to her sexual preferences as well as false claims that she was having unprotected sex. These are private matters even in relation to someone who is a sex worker. This followed by further false allegations that she was an HIV/Aids positive. Again, the court agreed that matters concerning one’s health are private matters unless there was a clear public interest in those matters being made public. Granting the privacy injunction, Mr Justice Warby, sitting at the London High Court said that a privacy injunction was "amply justified" to restrain continued harassment of GYH and the misuse of private information about her.

The clear message that was sent by the court was that those individuals who provide sexual services are not excluded from a right to have their privacy protected, regardless of the fact that they might be advertising themselves as sex worker. Mr Justice Warby added that although sex workers who advertised their services on the internet might place some private information in the public domain, to which they may have no reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to that or similar information, there is no question of a person waiving her right to privacy in a particular zone of her private life, merely by publicising some information falling within that zone. In other words, just because someone advertises themselves as sex workers, doesn’t mean that every aspect of their sexuality or sexual activity can be published without their consent. You can read the full judgement in the privacy injunction case of GYH v PERSONS UNKNOWN here.

Proven strategies to help you remove from the internet adult videos you had made earlier in your life

If say, 10 or 15 years ago, for whatever reason, you agreed to make a sex video in return for money, and that video has in the meantime been published on the internet, you might be able to have the video and any related video clips deleted from each and every website that hosts it.

At the time, when you agreed to participate in making the sex video, you might have thought of it as being a matter of little long term importance. Most actors who performed in adult films ten years ago or longer hardly anticipated that their erotic films would be cut into dozens of short clips and published and republished endless times by complete strangers who had nothing to do with creating the films. It is likely that before the production of a pornographic film you agreed to assign all your intellectual property rights to a production company who you thought would keep matters under control. The assignment of your rights to the porn video might not be valid.

How to remove nude images and videos from the internet.

Often, models and performers who previously appeared on nude or pornographic videos wish to put their past behind them and move on with their lives.

Many wish to study a profession or start a family. Young adult film performers may have signed copyright assignment agreements with model agencies or with adult film produces which on the face of it give away all their legal rights in relation to the pornographic videos or nude images they now wish to remove from the internet.