A 36-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 months imprisonment by the District Court of Western Australia today (Friday, 28 August 2020), for threatening a former girlfriend and distributing intimate images of her without permission.
The Byford man had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated use of a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, involving the transmission, publication or distribution of material of a private sexual nature, contrary to section 474.17A(1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).
Australian Federal Police charged the man in December (2019) after the woman sought help, claiming the man had sent the private photographs to her relatives and shared some publicly on a pornography website.
The man also sent dozens of text messages to the woman in which he threatened to release more of the sexually explicit material.
The photographs had been taken consensually, but the man circulated them without permission in late 2019 after the pair’s relationship broke down.
AFP investigators charged the man over the image-based abuse on 22 December after executing a search warrant at his home and reviewing his mobile phone and online accounts.
The man will have to serve 10 months behind bars before he is eligible for release on parole.
The media release issued at the time he was charged is available here: https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/perth-man-accused-revenge-porn-0
