The case of XLD v KZL

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Details

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Cohen Davis win an injunction in a blackmail case

In this blackmail injunction case, our client, who was subjected to blackmail was a US citizen who worked in the financial services industry and the entertainment business. He occasionally visited the UK for the purpose of his business. He was married and a father to a child.

Blackmail online dating

PayPal blackmail

Obtaining evidence of blackmail

How to identify a blackmailer in the UK

Can blackmail victim remain anonymous in the UK

Can you obtain blackmail injunction without notice

Can a judge hear a blackmail injunction application in a private hearing

How to make an emergency application for blackmail injunction

Blackmail injunction and jurisdiction

Blackmail online dating

Our client visited a dating website called Seeking Arrangement. The website is known for matching Sugar Daddies with Sugar Babies. His intention was to meet a companion for the time when he is visiting the UK. The idea behind Seeking Arrangement website is that the wealthier person (the man or woman) is responsible for paying the other person's expenses, or, if the relationship is more serious, for improvement in their lifestyle.

The Defendant was a woman who lived near Manchester, England had a profile on the website. After our client came across the Defendant’s profile, he contacted her and they exchanged messages initially via the website and then via the WhatsApp messaging service. The messages became sexually explicit.

PayPal blackmail

Shortly after the messaging began, the Defendant made her first financial demand, requesting our client to pay her a sum of money via PayPal. Unfortunately for him, the PayPal payment caused our client’s identity to be revealed to the Defendant through the email address associated with the PayPal account. One of the reasons why PayPal blackmail is so common is that it reveals the identity of the individual making the payment.

Once she had identified his email address, the Defendant carried out some research, until she managed to locate the residence address of our client and identify other information about him, indicating that he was a public figure. This discovery had made our client particularly vulnerable to the Defendant’s blackmail plans. Once the Defendant discovered our client’s vulnerabilities, she started to make frequent demands for money.

The demands were supported by threats to tell our client’s family about his activities. Over a period of ten months, our client was blackmailed to the tune of of £125,000. 

Obtaining evidence of blackmail

Obtaining evidence of blackmail in a blackmail injunction case is crucial for anyone who is facing blackmail. Over that period of time, our client was in significant distress. He had not told anybody about the blackmail and he had deleted his WhatsApp messages and much of the evidence to the blackmail demands from the Claimant. Fortunately, we were able to retrieve most of the emails which together with evidence of payments to the Defendant, demonstrated a clear case of blackmail.

Often, distressed victims of blackmail delete important evidence of blackmail demands and other evidence which would help a lawyer resolve the blackmail case. Over time, and following COVID 19 restrictions, our client found it increasingly difficult to adhere to the Defendant’s blackmail demands. He has become increasingly unwell following the distress that such a prolonged period of blackmail has caused him.

How to identify a blackmailer in the UK

Identifying the blackmailer and her residential address in the UK could be highly challenging, particularly if the person being blackmailed is from another country. The Defendant had taken steps to conceal her identity and made it difficult to identify her through public sources only. However, most blackmailers are far less careful than they think.

Our firm works closely with private investigators who are extremely talented and resourceful. It took the services of a private investigator to establish the blackmailer's true name. The investigator also reported that on 24 occasions IP addresses connected with the Defendant had been blacklisted because it was thought that blackmail demands had been made from them.

It appeared, we were dealing with a professional blackmailer who has some experience in blackmailing men she meets through dating websites. Once we have established the name, the telephone number and the postal address of the Defendant, we proceeded immediately to apply for an emergency injunction to protect our client from further blackmail.

Can blackmail victims remain anonymous in the UK

Victims of blackmail are often concerned that their identity would be revealed, should they decide to take legal action against their blackmailer. In cases of blackmail, it is common in both criminal and civil courts for the victims to be anonymised. This is often done in order to protect the identity of the victim.

Before proceeding any further, we applied for the identity of our client to be anonymised. This meant that there was no record of our client’s name on the court papers. Our client’s real name in relation to the legal proceedings was only known to our client’s legal team and to the judge.

Can you obtain a blackmail injunction without notice

Yes. In case of blackmail, it is common to apply for an interim injunction without giving the blackmailer notice of the hearing. After we have successfully applied to anonymise our client, we proceeded to make the injunction application, without notice to the Defendant.

The reason for making an injunction application without notice in cases of blackmail is that there is often a concern that if the Defendant was to be given notice of the hearing, she might decide that she had no longer anything to lose or gain, and would, in turn, disclose the very same information that the injunction application is seeking to prevent.

Can a judge hear a blackmail injunction application in a private hearing

Yes. It is possible to ask the judge to hear an application for an injunction in blackmail cases, as a private hearing. In this case we requested that the hearing for the injunction is made in private, in order to avoid the risk of the injunction application being reported by anyone in the public gallery or by the press. This is in order to protect the privacy of our client.

English law recognises that there were situations where the principles of open justice would be set aside. Those situations are restricted to where publicity would defeat the object of the hearing; the hearing involved confidential information and publicity would damage that confidentiality and /or the court considers that a private hearing was necessary in the interests of justice.

How to make an emergency application for a blackmail injunction

As this was a case of blackmail where the Defendant threatened to publish private information about our client, the blackmail injunction application was made on the basis of Harassment and the tort of Misuse of private information. There are no specific civil laws in the UK that relate to blackmail. Therefore, blackmail injunctions are made on the back of the law of harassment and/or the misuse of private information.

To be able to obtain a blackmail injunction for misuse of private information, we had to demonstrate that the information in question was information in which our client had a reasonable expectation of privacy. We have identified four instances of misuse of private information which relate to the following facts, which the injunction should make sure are not disclosed:

• The fact of our client visited the Seeking Arrangements website and his attempt to use the services offered by it.
• The fact that our client communicated with the Defendant regarding entering into an agreement and the content of their exchanges.
• The fact that their communications included sexually explicit messages and their content.
• The fact that our client was a victim of blackmail and information regarding that.

To be able to obtain the blackmail injunction under the harassment, in reliance on the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, we have identified the following grounds:

• The harassing nature of the Defendant’s blackmail demands.
• The persistent nature of her conduct.

Blackmail injunction and jurisdiction

Often, blackmail takes place over a number of jurisdictions. In this case, the blackmailer was from the UK whilst the victim of the blackmail was living in the USA. Which court, therefore has jurisdiction over the blackmail matter is something that the lawyer has to address with a court in every case where the blackmail occurs over more than one jurisdiction. Since our client was a US citizen and domiciled there, we had to address the English Court's jurisdiction over the matter.

By the Recast Brussels Regulation Article 7, the UK court has jurisdiction if the Defendant is domiciled in the jurisdiction. That was in fact the case. We further had to address the issue of comparative law, as in harassment cases, the venue of where the harassment is committed is often the place where the victim is located rather than the Defendant. Under English law, there is a presumption that foreign law is the same as English law (or that it yields the same result).

It would be surprising if, whatever system of law was applicable, blackmail would be considered as lawful conduct. Immediately following the grant of the blackmail injunction, we had it served in person on the Defendant. This brought an immediate abrupt end to our client’s ordeal. Our client noted that he wished he had taken this step some time ago and that the delay in contacting lawyers in the UK had caused him unnecessary financial and personal distress.

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