I have never enjoyed watching Russell Brand. I have never found him funny. And his appearance BBC’s Question Time has always been a turn off for me. But I was interested to hear about the non-harassment inunction which he and Jemima Goldsmith obtained in 2015 against Szilva Berki after she had posted repeated allegations about Brand on social media. Apparently she had already gone to the police but they insuficient evidence to pursue matters further. So the case was closed. Berki then posted her allegations online and in doing so fell into a trap. The end result was that Brand and Goldsmith obtained summary judgment for an injunction preventing Berki from repeating her allegations to anyone save her own lawyer or a medical professional. What was worse for Berki, who was representing herself in the proceedings, was that she was ordered to pay all the costs of the case.
I have searched the internet to try find a transcript of these proceedings but all I could find was the actual 2015 injunction itself, which I had been able to download courtesy of Tax Policy Associates, a not-for-profit investigative organization.
Posting allegations about anyone on social media is always dangerous, unless it is already a matter of record. It might have been better for Berki if she had considered pursuing a civil claim against Brand founded on the same allegations and with a lower burden of proof. She might even have got a settlement. Maybe she had taken advice on that option. We will never know. Just as we will never know what her allegations were. Because that information has been suppressed.
