No jail for man who threatened to publish intimate photos of girl online

On July 5, 2021, the man put up the pictures online for 24 hours, according to gardaí. File photo

A young man who threatened to publish intimate pictures of a girl he met on Snapchat has received a suspended jail sentence.

The 24-year-old appeared at Donegal Circuit Court having pleaded guilty to threatening to publish intimate pictures of a person intending to cause them harm. The young man's victim was a then 17-year-old girl from Co Donegal whom he had befriended on Snapchat.

Gardai based at the girl's local Garda station in Co Donegal told how on July 5, 2021, the girl came home and was in hysterics and told her mother that a man she had been in contact with had posted nude pictures of her on Snapchat.

The girl said she had befriended the man after getting a friend request from him and was in contact with him between January and June 2021. The man said he was into photography and asked the girl to send him pictures of herself.

She said she sent eight to 10 pictures of herself topless and in underwear and also a picture of her vagina but her face was not shown. The girl said the man also sent pictures of his penis to her but she said she didn't open the message while he also sent her videos of himself.

The girl then stopped contacting the man as she found a boyfriend. When the girl told the man that she did not wish to remain in contact as she had a boyfriend, the man then sent her screenshots of the nude images and also a list of her Instagram followers.

He warned her that if she did not keep doing what he wanted he would link the people who were following her with the nude photos. On July 5, 2021, the man put up the pictures online for 24 hours, according to gardai.

The man was also alleged to have posted the pictures online again on July 21, 2021.

Gardai initially said that all of the young woman's friends and the man's friends could see the pictures but he later suggested when cross-examined that it may have been private to both the accused and his victim.

When the woman's mother heard about the pictures, she immediately contacted gardaí. Officers visited the young man at his address in Co Meath and seized his mobile phone.

Sentencing

Judge John Aylmer said if there was any level of doubt as to the level of publication then the accused had to receive the benefit of doubt. A GP's report was handed in on the accused which stated he suffered from autism, hyperactivity, depression, dyspraxia and Tourette syndrome.

Judge John Aylmer described the incident as "very nasty" and "very traumatising" for the victim but having seen the nature of the images and the evidence of the threat, he placed it at the lower end of the scale and one which merited a sentence of two years before mitigation.

In mitigation, he said the man had co-operated fully, had entered an early plea and all of the evidence was that he had laboured through childhood with a number of medical conditions. He said he had the benefit of a very detailed report from psychologist Dr Melissa Darmody.

Judge Aylmer said it is the case that since his adolescent years, the accused has displayed some sexually deviant tendencies but this was his first time before the courts. He reduced the sentence 16 months which he suspended.