‘Actual imprisonment necessary’ for man who uploaded photos, videos of ex to Pornhub

The Pornhub website is shown on a computer screen in Toronto on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A man who uploaded dozens of sexually explicit photos and videos of his ex-girlfriend to Pornhub without her consent must serve time behind bars, a B.C. judge ruled.

The five-month jail sentence for one count of publishing intimate images without consent was handed down in provincial court earlier this month, after the judge rejected the man’s bid to serve his sentence in the community, finding “a term of actual imprisonment is necessary.”

The man is referred to as B.W. in the decision, due to a publication ban on any information that could identify the victim, who is referred to as E.H.

The court heard the two dated on and off for approximately two years.

“During their relationship, B.W. recorded several videos of the two of them having intercourse. Some of those recordings were made with the consent of E.H., while others were not,” Judge Robin McQuillan wrote.

“The accused asked E.H. if he could post the videos online, but she told him he could not.”

After the couple broke up, the woman told B.W. she was not interested in having any further contact with him and blocked his number “repeatedly” the court heard.

Roughly six months after the break-up, B.W. sent his ex a profile page from Pornhub.

“The profile page contained a photograph of E.H. along with the nickname, (omitted for publication). That is a nickname that E.H. has used frequently for herself. The next day, B.W. sent E.H. four text messages,” the judge wrote in his decision.

“In those text messages, he confirmed that he had posted materials of her on the internet, that he still loved her, and that he felt she had discarded him and that she should get help for herself.”

The woman contacted police, and their investigation found 18 videos and 80 photos had been uploaded to the site, amassing roughly 13,700 combined views over a period of roughly six months, the court heard.

They were only taken down when the police contacted Pornhub, the judge said.

B.W. did not make any money from the posts, but the decision said he did provide his banking information—meaning he “might” have profited if the videos and photos garnered enough views.

The judge noted that B.W. pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for his actions, which he considered mitigating for the purposes of sentencing.

But the judge found the circumstances called for jail time because of the need to denounce and deter similar offences.

“There are considerable aggravating features present here. In particular, the identifiability of the victim, the very public nature and availability of the images over a very long period of time, and the pre-meditated and revenge-motivated nature of the acts place this offence in a more egregious category than some others,” McQuillan wrote.

B.W was also sentenced to 18 months of probation, with conditions including no contact with E.H. and a requirement to take any posts showing or referring to E.H. that remain online down within 24 hours of being released from jail.

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