Yair Cohen is the UK’s first internet law solicitor. For more than a decade the BBC, ITV, The Times, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the legal press have asked him to explain catfishing, online harassment, defamation and privacy law, and have reported the cases his firm, Cohen Davis Solicitors, has taken to the High Court. This page collects that coverage, newest first within each topic, with a line on what he said. Every link opens the original article in a new tab.
Yair’s book, The Net Is Closing: Birth of the e-Police (2016), argued that the lawless internet would not last. Journalists wanting comment or an interview can reach him through the contact page, or the Cohen Davis helpline on 020 7183 4123 or helpline@cohendavis.co.uk.
As featured in
Watch: Yair on television and radio
46 broadcast interviews from 2017 to 2022, BBC, Good Morning Britain, LBC, Al Jazeera, RT and others, newest first. Click a clip to play it here; nothing loads from Vimeo or YouTube until you do. Each title links to the note on that interview. Later appearances, including ITV This Morning and Sky News in 2026, are in the sections below.
Watch: television and radio · Catfishing: the Sasha Davies and Sweet Bobby cases · Online harassment, trolls and blackmail · Defamation and other key cases · Free speech, policing and the regulation of the internet · Privacy, data and online reputation · Profiles and interviews
Catfishing: the Sasha Davies and Sweet Bobby cases
Yair Cohen acted for Kirat Assi, whose nine-year ordeal became the Netflix documentary Sweet Bobby, and in 2026 for Sasha Davies, a young woman from Aberdare whose photographs were used to catfish men for four years until the firm’s investigators identified the person behind it and the High Court case settled with a £10,000 payment and an apology.
Catfisher sued for stealing identity in four-year campaign is revealed
The firm’s open-source intelligence team traced the fake persona to a woman living five minutes from Sasha. Yair: “the moment she told me what she had been living through, I knew I could not walk away.”
Teen catfish victim wins £10k court payout after identity stolen by girl in her town
Outside the High Court after the settlement: “For four years, Sasha did everything right.” The judge heard that the defendant had run a sustained campaign of online impersonation.
Student catfished for four years was ambushed in the street by men
The Sun’s report of the case, with Yair Cohen as Sasha Davies’s solicitor.
This Morning helped me catch my catfisher
Sasha returned to the programme with Yair after the case concluded: how the promise made on air in March was kept in the High Court.
Someone stole my identity to catfish men
The appearance where Yair met Sasha Davies and said, live, that the person responsible could be found. The story of what followed is in The Sasha Davies catfishing case.
Lawyer behind Netflix hit Sweet Bobby calls for resources to tackle catfishing
Yair called for police and courts to be resourced to deal with catfishing: “The devastation caused by catfishing is profound.”
New laws are needed to stop online predators, cybercrime expert says
On why the law needs a specific offence for catfishing, drawing on the Kirat Assi case, which the police had refused to investigate.
Aberdare woman has identity stolen to catfish men
Yair on what drives catfishers: often “low self-esteem” and the trust the false identity earns them; and why Sasha’s case should present “very little difficulty” as harassment.
Netflix’s Sweet Bobby follows an eight-year catfishing. Here’s what happened after the victim learned the truth
How Yair represented Kirat Assi in the civil courts when the Metropolitan Police would not investigate.
Lawyer behind Netflix’s hit show Sweet Bobby warns love rats of legal action
Yair said people who catfish should face legal consequences, and explained how the civil courts can act where the criminal law has not.
Online harassment, trolls and blackmail
The firm’s harassment work has made law more than once: the first disclosure order against Facebook (Nicola Brookes), the first harassment injunction served through Instagram, the first troll answerable in both the criminal and the civil courts (Paul Britton), and the thirteen-year Goldrick Dean case.
TikTok boxer linked to sextortion scam fleecing US millionaires
Yair acts for a US businessman caught by a honey-trap dating scam. His client, he said, sent only clothed photographs and believed he was talking to a woman online.
NHS manager accused of fatwa death threat over insult to Mohammed
Yair, for the victim: “I am calling for immediate and decisive action to protect my client.”
Boutique firm sees off campaign by YouTube conspiracy theorist
The Gazette on Rzucek v Vinnicombe, in which the firm acted, partly pro bono, for a family targeted by a conspiracy theorist who turned on their lawyers too.
A landmark victory against online harassment: how a conspiracy theorist was held accountable
Yair’s own account of the Rzucek case: when the family’s funds ran out, the Cohen Davis team carried on without charge.
Mum endured ten years of hell, just for defending X Factor star Frankie Cocozza
With a comment piece by Yair, who acted for Nicola Brookes in the first disclosure order against Facebook, on the toll harassment takes on the people who come to him.
Anonymous social media trolls who abuse tennis players face being unmasked after technology breakthrough
Yair explains how investigation technology now lets him identify the people behind racist abuse of athletes.
Vile comments about Meghan found on Kensington Palace’s Instagram
Yair on why abuse posted to the Duchess’s official page could aggravate any offence: the poster assumes she will read it.
Woman harassed by internet date for 13 years set to get payout
On Lindsey Goldrick Dean: “For nearly 13 years Ms Goldrick Dean could not get meaningful help from the police despite the evidence.”
Web developer avoids jail after creating website about ex-client which falsely claimed he was a paedophile
Yair, for Mr Phipps, said his client would pursue the civil claim regardless of the sentence; he did, and won.
Web developer created website about ex-client falsely claiming he was a paedophile
The Paul Britton prosecution, the first time in the UK an online troll answered for the same campaign in the criminal court and then the High Court.
Lawsuits against web trolls are on the rise
Yair quoted on the growing use of court orders to identify anonymous posters.
Anonymous web trolls are targeted by company lawyers in UK lawsuits
One of the first reports of businesses using the English courts to unmask anonymous online critics, with Yair’s comment.
Defamation and other key cases
Cases in which Yair Cohen acted, reported in the national press. The fuller case notes are in Key cases by Yair Cohen.
Holby City actor sues Graham Linehan
Yair acts for David Paisley in his defamation claim over Substack articles and reader comments. Case note: Paisley v Linehan.
Gay porn star ordered to pay over £100,000 damages to adult media tycoon
Aaronson v Stones: the judge found a campaign of defamation of an extremely serious type. Yair acted for Mr Aaronson.
Black Royal Marine accuses West Yorkshire Police of racism as force issues High Court apology
Yair, who took the case on a no-win, no-fee basis: “There needs to be an investigation into why West Yorkshire Police acted as they did.”
West Yorkshire Police accused of racism after defaming black Marine
“There is a presumption that the police should be believed and this represented a breach of that trust.” Case note: TJM v West Yorkshire Police.
Being a sex worker does not mean you cannot have a private life, says judge as he grants injunction
The Telegraph’s report of a privacy injunction for a sex worker, with Yair Cohen featured.
Judgments: XLD v KZL [2020] EWHC 1558 (QB), harassment injunction; Dudley v Phillips [2022] EWHC 930 (QB), defamation and data protection damages together.
Free speech, policing and the regulation of the internet
Yair has argued since his 2016 book that the internet would not stay unpoliced, and since 2024 that Britain has swung too far the other way. His 2026 series Regulated Without Representation sets out the argument in full.
Labour MP endorses porn site that fails to block children
“It looks like the website does breach the law if it shows adult content within that 12 seconds before any age verification.”
I criticised Labour and the thought police came for me
Charlie Mullins OBE on the attempt to strip him of his honour; Yair acts for Mr Mullins. Case note: Saving your OBE from forfeiture.
Tracking terrorists online might invade your privacy
“The interception exists, it is just a matter of putting things into formality, which is better, because you can have oversight and some level of judicial scrutiny.”
Individuals have no right to stop name being used online
Yair quoted on the limits of an individual’s control over the use of their name online.
Privacy, data and online reputation
Practical advice pieces and comment on privacy, the right to be forgotten and online reviews.
Seven things you should never share on social media
Yair on location, routine, family names and wealth as the raw material of identity crime: “Never assume your identity will remain private.”
You can be forgotten online, but not in the British Library
On the right to be forgotten and its limits, with Yair’s comment.
UK shoppers more likely to be positive in online reviews than negative
“Video reviews have a higher level of credibility, especially when the reviewer is on-screen speaking to the camera.” Yair also called for a regulator to set standards for reviews.
30 ways to undo a decade of damage in days
Yair’s guide to erasing an online footprint: “There’s a difference between deactivating an account and deleting it.”
Profiles and interviews
Policing the web, from catfishing to harassment, with UK leading internet lawyer Yair Cohen
A long interview with Robert Hanna: the first Facebook disclosure order, the Sweet Bobby case, and Yair’s view of how the internet will be policed.
Harassment soars as police fail with online stalkers
The Times Best Law Firms profile of Cohen Davis and its harassment work.
I could have sorted Wagatha in 24 hours: meet the troll-hunting lawyer
A Telegraph profile of Yair and the firm’s approach to unmasking anonymous abusers.
Lawyer of the week: Yair Cohen
The Times’ Lawyer of the Week column on Yair’s harassment and catfishing work.
Online harassment injunction first
Lawyer in the news: the first solicitor to serve a harassment injunction on an anonymous abuser through Instagram. Case note: DDF v YYZ.
Earlier and other coverage
The Sasha Davies case was also carried by MSN, Hypefresh and the Brazilian site Mixvale, and the Sweet Bobby coverage by National News. Television and radio interviews with Yair, including the BBC, ITV, LBC, Sky News, Al Jazeera and RT, are written up as posts across this site; the Interviews tag lists them.
