A successful civil case has highlighted how privacy law is being brought to bear against reported rises in the un-consensual and abusive sharing or sale of private intimate images and films.

While the criminal law was clarified in 2015 and 2021 to specifically criminalise such behaviour, victims could be left with ongoing damage where the images were posted online, or with uncompensated costs to their mental or physical health.

Now one of those affected has turned to civil law, and their privacy rights, to address that continuing harm.

• In FGX v Gaunt [2023] EWHC 419 (KB), an anonymised claimant was awarded over £97,000 in damages for a breach of her privacy and distress after she discovered a former partner had made secret recordings of her, and uploaded them onto pornographic websites
• The damages included an award of over £20,000 to allow the claimant to have the images removed from the internet where possible.

While the justice provided by a conviction under the criminal law will be of some satisfaction to victims, the ability to bring a civil claim, anonymously to avoid further distress, and gain damages to compensate for material and mental damage, including sums to remove any internet publication, appears infinitely more valuable in some cases.

Hugo Tyrrell, an Associate with the firms Reputation and Privacy team said: “with the CPS charging over 1,000 offences of “revenge porn” in the last two years, it is likely that further claimants will look to follow convictions with civil claims.”

FGX v Gaunt https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/KB/2023/419.html