Letter from London

Fighting SLAPP and tickle with a task force ... Law firm managing partner siphoned £64 million from the clients for a property spree ...  Bed sheets assist terror accused escape from pokey ... Birth father looped into adoption details ... Throwing the book at climate protestors ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt reporting from the Old Dart 

The UK government is creating a task force to combat the increasing number of SLAPP cases aimed at intimidating journalists and publishers. 

Not the SLAP Will Smith planted on Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars ... its the rather more troublesome strategic litigation against public participation. 

SLAPP cases are typically time-consuming and expensive legal threats, often involving defamation and privacy claims, designed to silence critical investigative reporting.

In 2021, there were approximately 14 SLAPP cases in England and Wales, a significant increase from two cases in both 2020 and 2019 and one case in 2018. 

An increase in cases? I'm having flashbacks to COVID reporting. Surely Boris Johnson should throw a party. Notable examples of recent SLAPP cases include Russian oligarchs targeting journalists, a Kazakh mining company's failed case against a journalist and a libel action brought by Brexit donor Arron Banks.

The newly formed task force, which includes representatives from the media and legal sectors, will work to identify measures to protect public interest journalism, particularly in the areas of economic crime, sexual misconduct and environmental issues. 

The group will meet every two months, commission research to assess the prevalence of SLAPP cases against journalists, provide specialised training for judges and legal professionals to recognise and dismiss SLAPPs and develop guidance to support journalists and publishers. 

Meanwhile, Schillings - the go-to law shop for defamation claimants - is setting up a "reputation management" PR offshoot for its mega-rich and oligarch clients.

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The former managing partner of law shop Axiom Ince (a firm not a made-up rappers name) has admitted that £64 million of clients' money has gone. 

Vanished into thin air? Well, not quite. Pragnesh Modhwadia confirmed in an affidavit that client funds were used to acquire Ince and Plexus Law, purchase six properties and finance construction on seven more properties earlier this year. 

No longer are people using the bank of mum and dad to get into the property market, they're using the bank of ... their clients - which is illegal. 

Persuading your parents to buy you a house however is not ... Mum, Dad if you're reading? The High Court has issued a freezing order against Modhwadia and extended it to £64 million.

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Wandsworth exit strategy

In breaking news, pun intended, on the September 6, 2023, 21-year-old Daniel Khalife broke out of Wandsworth prison and was on the run for three days. 

The former British soldier allegedly strapped himself to the underside of a food van using bedsheets to escape - a man who knows how to fold a fitted sheet! 

On the September 9, police found Khalife riding a bicycle on a canal towpath in west London. After strapping himself to the bottom of a truck, you think he could have opted for something a bit more surreptitious. 

Khalife was imprisoned earlier this year on terrorism charges for devising a fake bomb, extracting personal data from an MoD information system and breaching the Official Secrets Act. 

He will now face additional charges for escaping from HM's prison and is due to appear at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court on September 29, preferably without a bedsheet.

The TV series Prison Break was banned from 13 US prisons in case it gave inmates clever ideas and concerns about severe body image issues

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The Ministry of Justice has been ordered to improve its operational procedures after details of an adoption were accidentally leaked to the birth father. 

Cue Darth Vader in Star Wars - "Luke ... I am your father". 

The data breach occurred despite a court order explicitly excluding the birth father from proceedings. 

The breach took place when a cover sheet was removed from the adoption file and staff failed to check its contents. The consequences of the breach and the father's actions with the information have yet to be revealed. 

Stay tuned for a 13^th Star Wars film - The Birth Father Strikes Back. 

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Dame Sue Carr: soon to be Lord Chief Justice ... no nonsense from climate protesters

Just Stop Oil activists Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker have lost their appeal to reduce their sentences for causing a public nuisance. 

The climate activists climbed the Dartford Crossing bridge and suspended themselves over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge for approximately 37 hours in October last year. 

London's flat topography and lack of recreation centres leaves much to be desired in the realm of budding rock climbers.   

Trowland was sentenced to three years in prison, which is said to be the longest sentence for a non-violent climate protest in British history. 

Decker was slotted for two years and seven months.

Three senior judges dismissed their appeals. Lady Justice Sue Carr said the "protest was non-violent, as such" and that the sentences were not excessive - the traffic in London was. 

Okay she didn't say that last part, I added it.