Matthew Garrett v Roy Schestowitz & Anor (No 2)

Facts

Dr Matthew Garrett sued Roy Schestowitz, who operates the Techrights website, and Rianne Schestowitz, who operates Tuxmachines, in libel over 24 articles published in August and September 2023, together with a data protection claim over those and other publications; the defendants counterclaimed in harassment. After a trial on 30 and 31 October 2025, Collins Rice J gave judgment for the claimant on 20 November 2025, reported at [2025] EWHC 3063 (KB), dismissing the counterclaim, awarding £70,000 damages and costs, and ordering publication of a summary under section 12 of the Defamation Act 2013. Her order of 5 December 2025 contained a three-limbed injunction: limb 11a prohibited publishing any further words bearing the same or similar meanings to those in Schedule A; limb 11b required removal of the webpages listed in Schedule B by 4pm on 16 December 2025; limb 11c required removal of any other webpages containing the same or similar meanings, with no deadline. The defendants removed the Schedule B pages from their "https://" addresses on the deadline, but left textually identical mirror copies in the "Gemini Edition" of each site, took no action under limb 11c, and the first defendant posted four new articles in January and February 2026. On 27 February 2026 the claimant applied under CPR 81 to commit both defendants for 177 alleged breaches grouped in six grounds. Representative breaches were tried before Fordham J over four days in July 2026.