HXZ v NMX
| Court | King's Bench Division |
| Judge | Mr Justice Ritchie |
| Judgment Date | 21 March 2025 |
| Neutral Citation | [2025] EWHC 697 (KB) |
| Date | 21 March 2025 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Counsel | Sara Mansoori Kc,Kirsten Sjovoll Of Counsel,Kirsten Sjovoll |
Neutral Citation Number: [2025] EWHC 697 (KB)
Out of hours application
Claim Number: KB-2025-000910
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE
Date: 21.3.2025
Before:
MR JUSTICE RITCHIE
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BETWEEN
HXZ
Claimant
- and –
NMX
Defendant
Sara Mansoori KC and Kirsten Sjovoll of counsel (instructed by Villars Legal) for the
Claimant
the Defendant did not appear
Hearing date: 13.3.2025
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
APPROVED JUDGMENT
Judgment approved by the Court for handing down. This judgment will be handed down by
the Judge remotely by circulation to the parties' representatives by email and released to The
National Archives. The date and time for hand-down is deemed to be at 2.00 pm on
21.3.2025
Approved Judgment: HXZ v NMZ
Mr Justice Ritchie:
The Parties
1. The Claimant is a dual nationality businessman and a widower.
2. The Defendant is a woman with a large following on a particular social media
platform.
Bundles
3. For the hearing I was provided with a hearing bundle, an authorities bundle and a
skeleton argument.
Summary
4. I was sitting as the urgent applications judge when this application started at 4.30 pm
on 13.3.2025. The Claimant sought an ex-parte interim injunction to prohibit the
Defendant from publishing, inter alia, naked photos of him on the internet and
sending them to his children and business colleagues. I granted a slimmed down
version of the requested injunction and the order was made at around 7.30 pm to be
served as soon as possible. I said I would give my reasons later. I do so now.
The Issues
5. The following issues arose in the application:
5.1 Whether anonymity was appropriate and/or a hearing in private.
5.2 Whether an exparte application was appropriate.
5.3 The cause of action.
5.4 The threshold for interim injunctions concerning private information.
5.5 The threshold for an anti-harassment injunction.
5.6 The potential defences.
The Pleadings and chronology of the action
6. The Claim Form was issued on 12.3.2025. The Claimant sought damages and an
injunction asserting that the Defendant had misused his confidential private
information and had threatened to do so again in future and seeking protection from
harassment. No particulars of claim have been provided yet.
The lay witness evidence
7. The Claimant relied on the following witnesses:
7.1 His own non-confidential witness statement sworn on 12.3.2025.
7.2 His confidential witness statement sworn on 12.3.2025.
7.3 A witness statement from Talita Villars (the Claimant’s solicitor) sworn on
12.3.2025.
Exparte hearings, hearings in private and anonymity
8. In Armstrong Watson v PUs [2023] 4 WLR 41, (Armstrong) I set out the law and
procedure in relation to exparte applications and hearings in private in paragraphs 11-
2
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