Man must pay ex $1.2billion after hacking home security to spread 'revenge porn'

15 August 2023 , 19:57

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The woman sued her ex-boyfriend after the abuse led her to contemplate suicide - stock image (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A man who spread "revenge porn" images of his former girlfriend online has been ordered by a jury to pay his victim $1.2billion.

A lawsuit claims he posted the woman's images across various online platforms, accessing some of the images by hacking a security camera in her Texas home. He shared images via email and on a pornography site, her lawyers claim.

In one email to his victim he wrote: "You will spend the rest of your life trying and failing to wipe yourself off the internet,” the man allegedly said in an email to the woman. “…Happy Hunting." He is also accused of creating a website, a publicly accessible Dropbox folder and fake social media profiles to disseminate the explicit photos, the lawsuit alleged.

The woman, named only as Jane Doe in court documents, sued her ex-boyfriend in Harris County Texas district court in April 2022. However the defendant did not respond to court summonses, hire an attorney or appear to represent himself as the year-long case moved toward trial.

The man hacked the woman's social media accounts has part of his abuse campaign (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

However, while the defendant failed to appear in court, a jury ruled against him on Wednesday and recommended he pay £1.2billion in damages - a higher sum than the woman's lawyer requested, reports the The Washington Post.

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While the total sum is unlikely to be recouped, Bradford Gilde, an attorney for the woman, said the penalty set a high bar for and demonstrates the severity of such abuse.

He said: "This trial was not about the money or the number, it was about the message. We applaud the strength of Jane Doe to file this lawsuit and to set an example by warning others that, if you engage in image-based sexual abuse, you will spend the rest of your life with an excess judgment over your head."

The couple had reportedly experienced a "long and drawn out break up" in early 2020 after meeting in Texas and moving to Chicago in 2016. The woman decided moved back to Harris County to live with her mother. He ex had retained her social media log-ins and access to her mother's home security cameras - before them in his campaign of online abuse, the suit claims.

He allegedly accessed the woman’s accounts, sent false emails to a loan officer the woman was in contact with, and accessed her bank account to pay his own rent. The relentless harassment led the woman to contemplating template suicide, and she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, her attorneys said.

Bradley Ertl, another attorney for the woman, added: "She’s scared to show her face on Zoom, even with her co-workers. We had testimony from a co-worker that before all this took place, [our client] was bubbly, she was happy. She was always on the camera. Now she’s not.”

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Abigail O'Leary