Mum handed first jail sentence for posting ‘revenge porn’ snaps of ex-girlfriend
A woman has become the first person to be jailed under the UK’s new ‘revenge porn’ laws – after she posted her ex-girlfriend’s sex pictures to Facebook.
Samantha Watt, of Enfield, North London, was found to have posted “graphic sexual images” of her former lover on Facebook after their breakup.
Posting a photo of the graphic sex act, Watt wrote: “This girl pays for rent with sex and dirty pics lol she wants a taste of Sam’s life she’s getting a taste of how I can be. You can’t disrespect me.”
After Watt pleaded guilty under laws passed earlier this year that make revenge porn a criminal offence, she was today jailed for 18 weeks.
She is the first person to be handed a jail sentence under the new laws, which are intended to serve as a deterrent to taking revenge against former lovers online.
Watt admitted two charges of disclosing private sexual photographs with the intent to cause distress – which makes it a crime to share private explicit photos without consent.
The victim cannot be named for legal reasons.
Detective Constable Henry Marshall said: “Samantha Watt deliberately and callously set out to cause the victim distress, humiliation and embarrassment.
“By publishing these private images on social media without the victim’s consent, she broke the law and it is right that she now faces this custodial sentence.”
The court heard previously: “There was a sexual relationship between them.
“During the course of the relationship the victim consented to the defendant taking intimate photographs of her.
“The victim in her statement makes it clear that she consented on the basis that they were private and were never to be shown to anybody.
“On the 1 July this year the victim logged onto Facebook and saw that the defendant had published two intimate photographs.”
The mum-of-four is now facing a jail term – after the legal assessor recommended a custodial sentence.
