A Manitoba man has been sentenced to nine months in prison after posting intimate photos of his ex-girlfriend on Twitter in an act of revenge.
In a May 16 provincial court ruling posted online Monday, Judge Robert Heinrichs denied the man’s offer to serve his sentence in prison at home, saying his “perverse actions in wanting to harm “He asked the woman to go to prison.
The offender, who is only identified in the decision by the acronym SA, pleaded guilty to a crime of knowingly posting her intimate images.
He became enraged after discovering in March 2021 that his ex-girlfriend had been in a relationship with another man about a year earlier, even though they were not together at the time, Heinrichs said.
After an initial phone conversation with her, the man called her and texted her hundreds of times, threatening to kill the other man and posting pictures of her naked on the Internet.
She continued to post about 15 photos to her hundreds of Twitter followers and also directly to her.
“I always said I would show some if I had [expletive] finished, “the man wrote in a separate tweet.
Low risk of relapse
The woman quickly called police and was arrested about five hours later. It was only then that he asked him to delete the photos, which the police allowed him to do, Heinrichs said.
“There’s no way of knowing how many people viewed the photos, saved them, or shared them with anyone,” the judge said.
Although the victim did not file an impact statement in court, the damage to the crime “can be both perpetual and personal,” Heinrichs said.
The 20-year-old offender had no criminal record, admitted what he had done and was assessed by parole officers as a low risk of recidivism, the judge said.
Still, letting him serve his sentence at home would not fit the crime, Heinrichs said.
“When he found out, according to his way of thinking, that he had been unfaithful to him, he immediately proceeded to do him as much harm as he could,” the judge said.
“His tweet was sent to hundreds of people he knew and had easy access to through his Twitter account.”
The judge applied an additional 15 days to the offender’s conviction for breaching his bail order by sending a text message to the victim and asking him to drop the charges right after the police released him and told him no. he got in touch with her.
He will also serve two years of parole after being released from prison, during which time he is banned from using social media services or contacting the victim.