Hamilton man convicted of filming women at gym, uploading videos to Pornhub gets 15 months behind bars

The Ontario Court of Justice - Toronto can be seen above.

A Hamilton, Ont. man convicted of filming a number of women working out in public and uploading the content to Pornhub has been sentenced to 15 months in jail.

Michael Mikhail, who has already served five months in custody awaiting his sentence, will serve two years probation following jail time, during which he will not be permitted to contact any of the victims, attend the gym in question, or visit Pornhub.com, according to an Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision by Justice J.P.P. Fiorucci, published on Oct. 4.

He has also been directed to attend a rehabilitative program while on probation.

The offenses took place between 2016 and 2020 in Hamilton, according to the decision. After receiving a number of complaints from a gym on Queenston Road, officers with Hamilton police arrested Mikhail in March 2020.

Mikhail initially pleaded guilty to three counts of surreptitiously making a visual recording of a person for a sexual purpose, related to three different female victims, all of whom the decision states were unknown to Mikhail.

The accused also entered a guilty plea to knowingly distributing an intimate image of a former intimate partner without her consent.

One of the victims, referred to only as L.G. by the court, had “countless videos” of herself recorded, photos of herself taken in the nude, and images captured of her while she was in the bathroom. All of the content was taken without consent, and much of it was then uploaded to Pornhub.com, the decision reads.

The three other victims connected to Mikhail’s guilty pleas were all filmed at a gym in Hamilton, the documents state.

In one instance, Mikhail was found to have filmed the buttocks of a woman he didn't know while she was using a weightlifting machine. In another, he filmed an underage girl’s breasts, uploading the video with a title that referenced the fact she was a teen. In the last incident, a woman happened upon videos of herself and another individual, filmed at the gym, uploaded by Mikhail to Pornhub.

During proceedings and through his counsel, Mikhail admitted to facts relating to five additional victims, the decision states.

According to the decision, Mikhail told a psychologist tasked with assessing him that he did not know the act of filming individuals without their consent and uploading them online was illegal. He said he struggled to decipher the motivation for his actions.

When deliberating on the sentence, the justice heard that Mikhail had no prior criminal record, has since taken steps to address certain mental health concerns, and has expressed remorse for the crimes.

“Offenders who use their cell phones and digital devices as weapons to violate the sexual integrity of others should expect to receive a custodial sentence,” the judge wrote. “I have considered the principle of restraint, the fact that Mr. Mikhail comes before me as a first offender, having entered guilty pleas, and the fact that he has a stable background and favourable prospects of rehabilitation.”

The justice imposed five consecutive months of jail time for each offense.

“Therefore, the global sentence to be served is 15 months jail,” she wrote.

In an Oct. 4 hearing, Mikhail was read the sentencing reasons.