Michael Pratt, the owner of the porn website GirlsDoPorn, which was sued by several performers, did not appear in court. He is said to have left the USA and to be unavailable. Currently, a trial is underway in San Diego against the man who has been severely accused.
The controversial porn producer Michael Pratt has had to answer in court since August as more than 22 former performers are suing him for hiring them on false pretenses and damaging their reputations.
One of the Jane Does has said during the trial, »If I had known that they were posting it on the Internet, that my name would be attached to it, that it would be in the United States. If I had known that it was more than 30 minutes of filming, if I had known any of that, just any one of those, I wouldn’t have done it.«
Deceptive porn offer instead of model jobs
At the time of their shooting for GirlsDoPorn, all the plaintiffs were between 18 and 23 years of age and had originally applied for ads for model jobs. Instead, the women were offered $5,000 for 30 minutes of porn shooting. According to the plaintiffs, everyone was told that the footage was being distributed exclusively on DVD and only outside the US.
These were all lies to persuade the women to sign and participate. From the very beginning, it is said to have been intended that the films would be published on the GirlsDoPorn website and that for advertising purposes excerpts would also be uploaded to the highly frequented Pornhub portal, which can be used without registration.
Once they arrived in San Diego, the women were persuaded to sign contracts without being able to read them in full. But that’s not all: in one case, the agreed-upon fee was even reduced after the shoot.
An elaborate network to deceive the potential performers
In order to dispel any doubts of the women, actresses were also engaged as witnesses, who told the women that the website could be trusted. Some had been performers for the site before but did not even know that their videos were being posted on the website, others were hired to lie and never worked with the company at all. One of these women serves as a witness for the plaintiffs. According to her, she received 50 to 200 dollars for all phone calls she made with women to convince them to participate.
After the release of the videos, the full names of the women often became known. Acquaintances, friends, employers and family members heard about it and saw the videos. Several women reported that they were stalked and their lives were severely affected and harmed. And apparently GirlsDoPorn knowingly contributed to that.
Doxxing and Stalking Amateur Models: GirlsDoPorn’s Second Dark Product
The website attracted especially many stalkers and doxxing fetishists who collected the names of the amateur models continued to publish them and apparently enjoyed harming the women. »Dozens of websites, forums, and message boards exist dedicated solely to publishing victims’ real names, hometowns, social media accounts, photographs, and other personal information.«
Michael Pratt himself is said to have played an inglorious role and to have fueled and promoted the stalker phenomenon around his performers. BangBros has recently taken over and closed the website pornwikileaks.com that specialized in publishing full name and doxxing information on women in porn. In 2015 numerous GirlsDoPorn actresses ended up on that site with their full names and other information. The plaintiffs claim that since 2015 at the latest, the website has been maintained by an administrator whose e-mail was the same one that Michael Pratt himself frequently used. From 2016, advertisements for GirlsDoPorn even appeared on the website. If proven to be right, this would constitute a massive breach of trust and deceptive behavior by the porn producer.
To whom BangBros has made a payment in order to take over and close the website is currently unclear.
Numerous other victims suspected
According to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, more than 100 other women are affected who do not want to comment on Pratt’s case for fear of public exposure and retaliation.
Michael Pratt’s defense team apparently uses aggressive tactics in the trial to intimidate the plaintiffs and tries to portray them as untrustworthy. Although requests to play porn footage of the plaintiffs in the trial were rejected by the judge, the attempt alone should make clear how ruthless Pratt wants to continue his behavior.
Escape or business trip?
Now Pratt, who originally comes from New Zealand, has apparently left for a foreign country and refused a subpoena for another court hearing. Ed Chapin, head of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said in an interview: »We have been informed that [Pratt] is no longer in the jurisdiction and is no longer available to testify, even though he is under court order to here in court. I have never had this happen before. We are going to be running it to ground and asking the court for whatever relief we can get.« Chapin apparently now wants to try to get compensation from Pratt’s assets.
Pratt’s lawyer, Daniel Kaplan, on the other hand, says that his client is not on the run. According to him, his disappearance has no dubious reasons. »It doesn’t have anything to do with the trial. The trial date was uncertain for a number of months and the case has been going on for three years. People still have their lives to lead, including the defendant.« Kaplan stated that his client would continue to participate in the trial.