Photograph by Tup Wanders
A woman from Northern Ireland has been awarded £28,000 in damages after a prostitute website published personal photographs of the woman alongside prices for performing various sexual acts.
The woman, who has never been involved in prostitution, sued the US-based operators of the site in 2011 after being alerted by a friend to her pictures on the site.
The contact details with her photographs were fake and so the woman received no requests for sex, but her prostitute profile had been viewed 17,000 times by the end of September 2011 and remained on display for 18 month despite numerous efforts to have it taken down.
One of those attempts included contacting the police, who could not help her in dealing with the US site operators, they did notify social services as they were worried that the woman may have been involved in the sex trade. The subsequent investigation by social services, which found she was not involved in prostitution, added to the distress suffered by the woman.
In determining the level of damages that should be awarded to the woman, Master McCorry ruled that she was entitled to £15,000 for defamation and harassment, another £10,000 for aggravated damages for not taking the images down when first requested or issuing an apology, and a further £3,000 for the misuse of private information.
