In and around 2023, Roy and Rianne Schestowitz were subject to a horrific campaign of online harassment. Unfortunately they blamed me for it, and in turn wrote and published an astonishing array of articles making false accusations against me. Last year, I sued them in the high court in London. In turn, they countersued me for harassment. The case was heard last month and I'm pleased to say that the counterclaim was dismissed and I prevailed in my case. The court awarded me £70,000 in damages.
The judgement is now publicly available: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/kb/2025/3063
Abuse was not only targeted at me - during the course of the case my solicitor was attacked on the basis of his perceived religion, and baseless accusations of antisemitism were made against the firm. I appreciate the professionalism that they displayed throughout.
Last week, Rianne Schestowitz applied for permission to appeal the judgement. This was rejected today.
The next step will likely be an order including an injunction requiring the removal of the offending articles and forbidding any repetition of the baseless claims.
The order has now been agreed on by the court and will likely be formally issued on Monday. The Schestowitzs are required to remove all posts that repeat the false claims (not merely the posts that were the subject of the litigation) by 4PM on the 16th of December, along with payment of damages and costs.
The order has now been officially issued and I've put a copy at https://codon.org.uk/~mjg59/case/order.pdf . The Schestowitzs have indicated that they intend to appeal the order, but have not as yet indicated their grounds for doing so. My understanding is that this does not remove their obligation to follow the terms of the order.
Today Roy Schestowitz made a post including the claim (re: me) that "the Microsoft connection was affirmed under oath". This is ironic - I have never worked for Microsoft, and the strongest claim made under cross examination is that I have social relationships with some Microsoft employees who may have visited my home. On the other hand, public records show that Roy's home in Manchester is owned by a relative who is a senior engineer at Microsoft. Microsoft money apparently bought his house.
Today the court provided the order regarding costs and the publishing of a summary of the case: https://codon.org.uk/~mjg59/case/order2.pdf . The Schestowitzs must publish a summary of the case by 4PM on the 16th (tomorrow) and keep it there for at least 6 months, and must pay my costs by the 23rd. This is in addition to the previous order (https://codon.org.uk/~mjg59/case/order.pdf) that requires all the offending claims be removed by 4PM tomorrow, along with payment of damages.
An interesting part of the first order is that it requires removal of all posts that make claims determined to be defamatory, not just the posts that were the subject of the case - over 100 additional posts were made after the case was filed that repeated aspects of the claims, and these must also be removed by 4PM London time tomorrow
(The documents I've posted are all part of the public record - anyone can obtain them from CEFile)
I should note that the case summary has already been published on Techrights and Tuxmachines, and look forward to the Schestowitzs complying with the rest of the order
I've had a couple of people ask what happens if they don't fully comply with the orders - the answer is that they can be held in contempt of court, which can result in a range of penalties up to imprisonment (https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part-81-applications-and-proceedings-in-relation-to-contempt-of-court).
Pleased to see that the Schestowitzes have removed the publications that were the subject of the case - however, they have not (as far as I can tell) followed the requirement to remove any other pages that repeated the defamation (11(c))
Rianne Schestowitz has indicated that the Schestowitzes have filed for bankruptcy. If true, their assets (including personal property and domain names) will be sold to recover as much of the debt to me as possible, and my understanding is that the remaining debt will then be discharged after 12 months.
On the one hand, one might feel sorry for them for being in this position. Personal bankruptcy is a terrible thing to go through.
On the other hand. Well they brought it on themselves now, didn't they.
It was pointed out to me that this post is now quoted on their website, and misinterpreted at that. Roy, since I know you're following this thread: No, I did not say that you deserve to be harassed. Nobody does. When I said "you deserved it", that referred to your continued false accusations in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Also, sorry to spoil your thunder, but quoting Daniel Pocock is not the flex you think it is.
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@fraggle @mjg59 @jeroen94704 the very first time I heard about the Shests, Roy was busy compiling a list of journalists who borrowed laptops from Microsoft for a couple of weeks to review an early build of Windows 7 with very limited driver support that would have borked on most laptops because that was apparently a definitive sign that we were shills (as soon as I heard about the list I took the time to email him and insist that he added me, because if you've got a list I want to be on it). since then, my Homeric attribute has been something like 'noted Microsoft shill Branscombe' and the thought of trying to explain how that's wrong would make nailing custard to the wall an appealing pastime
@mjg59 Sigh. I suppose he is still holding to his evidence-free determination that you are the real attacker. Because otherwise he would have to admit that he might have been wrong, and wrecking his life is clearly a better option.
@RogerBW To be fair he owes me over 300,000 pounds at this point
@mjg59 and therefore one might think he’d decide enough was enough and that maybe he should stop at this point….
@mjg59 will assets include written work (such as the offending articles)? Sounds like a poison chalice for a third party to be picking up.
@mjg59 well at least you can now file your formal creditor notice with the person administering the bankruptcy :-/
Also given “not employed” in the bankruptcy details, I’m guessing the domain names in question might be the most valuable assets 🤔
@ewenmcneill @mjg59 especially given that his brother owns the house they live in (which isn't worth enough to cover what they owe anyway, according to the Zoopla estimate)
@mjg59 also the other bankruptcy got granted too, and at least Rianne is reported as employed.
Unsurprisingly it seems to be the Official Receiver North-West in both cases.