'I made a huge mistake', says woman duped into posing naked for photos as teenager

Tina Redmond: 'I was worried when I read that the gardaí are warning people about being vigilant about the sharing of naked pictures. I just want to say, you don’t know where your images will end up and what they will be used for.' Picture: Moya Nolan

A businesswoman who was duped into posing naked for photographs when she was a teenager is warning young people about the dangers of sharing images online.

Tina Redmond, 40, from Rush, Co Dublin, was 15 years old when she was approached by a photographer about modelling.

She did several photo shoots with the man before he asked her to remove her clothes, saying the more she revealed the more money she would make.

The mother-of-two is speaking out after gardaí warned of the rise in the number of young people sharing intimate or nude images.

On Monday, the Garda National Protective Services Bureau issued a warning to parents and guardians to monitor what content is being shared on their child’s phone.

The bureaus' Detective Superintendent Ian Lackey told the Irish Examiner that once someone sends an intimate image it becomes “completely uncontrollable”, and pictures can be shared widely.

He said social media companies may be in a position to remove images within three days but by then the damage is done.

“Parents should be making sure they know exactly what their child is doing on their phone.

We’re not the parental police, but parental responsibility has to come into it in terms of not being afraid to ask them what they’re doing on their phones and apps and that can get harder the older they get, I appreciate that."

Ms Redmond said to this day she does not know who the man was or where the images are but that he preyed on her after she was rejected by modelling agencies.

She said she still lives in fear of the images being published.

“When you are young, you really don’t have a clue about a lot of things. There is a big change in the confidence and expressions of younger people today. But I worry that the confidence can be forced, and teenagers are expected to be confident about their bodies.

“I was worried when I read that the gardaí are warning people about being vigilant about the sharing of naked pictures. I just want to say, you don’t know where your images will end up and what they will be used for.

Tina Redmond: 'You don’t know the power of one photo, and it is never gone even if it is deleted.' Picture: Moya Nolan

"I made a huge mistake as a teenager, I am a grown woman now. I had many challenges and I wanted nice things, I wanted to be a model, to look good and to make some money.

“I was turned down by agencies for being too small. But one photographer contacted me away from the agencies and asked me to do photos with him. He said I had what it takes to be a model. 

I know now he preyed on me, he saw the weakness and innocence in me. I was 15. He was well into his 30s, and he knew what he was doing."

Ms Redmond said she "had no clue what she was doing" or about the potential long-term ramifications of her decision.

"I just wanted to make money and have my photos taken. But having gone to his studio, he eventually started asking me to remove my clothes bit by bit until eventually, I was posing naked."

The gardaí were contacted about the incident.

The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 — also known as Coco’s Law — has made the sharing of images without consent a criminal offence.

The act also has increased penalties, with up to 10 years for conviction on indictment, as well as providing for increased fines.

It came into force in February 2021 and created new offences to deal with the non-consensual distribution of intimate images both online and offline.

Noeline Blackwell from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre said: “The gardaí are targeting on a regular basis the sharing of images when it is non-consensual, so where someone passes an image on to someone else without their consent, that’s the highly harmful bit.

“That’s where it is absolutely illegal to do that at any age.

“People who do this can go to jail, up until this law was brought in there wasn’t a lot of clarity around the issue. Now it’s very clear. There hasn’t been a lot of prosecutions yet, because an investigation has to show the images were shared without consent, and the act is new. So, we are at the start of those investigations.

We are not hearing a lot directly about this from clients because a lot of people still believe they are foolish for sharing an image in the first place and they blame themselves.

“But we are hearing from teachers and youth workers. It is another form of bullying and harassment and isolation of people.

“It can also be used to threaten people, such as ‘if you break up with me, I’ll share this image’. That is absolutely horrifying and that is harmful and the gardaí are there to report these concerns to."

Ms Redmond said while she has never seen any photos anywhere of her after she posed for them, it is always in the back of her mind that they could still exist.

“As a mother of two girls, one who is still a teenager, I’ve discussed all of this with them and my husband. You don’t know the power of one photo, and it is never gone even if it is deleted, that’s how I feel about it. 

"It is always in the back of my mind that these images could emerge."