B e f o r e :
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KATE RODGERS |
Claimant |
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- and – |
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LAURAL BROOKES |
Defendant |
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Mr. Gavin Edmondson (instructed by Gavin Edmondson Solicitors) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 22-24 April & 17 June 2025
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Crown Copyright ©
HHJ Malek :
Introduction
The Legal Framework
The "Lucy Baron" Allegations
Messages via the BBS website
i) the Claimant has managed to obtain from her website operator, Wix, the IP address from which the franchise message was sent and the Internet Service Provider ("ISP") for that address. The message was sent from IP address 81.96.210.208 from a property in Warrington for whom Virgin Media is the ISP. This was the Defendant's IP address traced to her home address by the Police.
ii) The Claimant has obtained from Wix the IP address from which the subscriptions were effected and the ISP address for that address. This was the Defendant's IP address and which was traced by the Police to the Defendant's home address.
iii) The Claimant has obtained from Wix the email address and IP address for samples of the product upload messages. Many of the sample messages were sent from the Defendant's IP address traced to her home.
The conduct of Mr. Simon Brookes
Expert evidence
i) The expert evidence is unnecessary to establish the Defendant's liability for the BBS Website. The parties agree that the IP address 81.96.210.208 was assigned to her residential address between 25 April 2021 and 9 February 2022. There is, therefore, a clear and undisputed forensic link between the Defendant and an IP address associated with some of the impugned conduct. This, combined with the other evidence in the case, is sufficient for the Court to decide on the Defendant's liability.
ii) The Joint Expert did not exercise reasonable care and skill when producing his report.
iii) The circumstances of the Joint Expert instruction raised questions about his independence.
iv) the Joint Expert's report is almost entirely inconclusive; for example, he could neither confirm nor deny whether the Lucy Baron and Katie Saxby profiles could be linked backed to the IP address 81.96.210.208. His responses to the Defendant's questions are mostly equivocal. The only conclusion he definitively states in his report is that, on the data available, "there is no evidence to suggest that any third-party manipulation has taken place".
Conclusion on liability
Relief – preliminary views
"a lower band of £1,100 to £11,200 (less serious cases); a middle band of £11,200 to £33,700 (cases that do not merit an award in the upper band); and an upper band of £33,700 to £56,200 (the most serious cases), with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £56,200."