Suspended sentence for Revenge Porn Magistrates Court 2023

Our client was charged with sending images gained from the victim on social media consensually to others. The parties had exchanged images mutually. 

This is a serious offence of disclosing private sexual images Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (section 33. )

Our client foolishly threatened the victim with releasing the images if she did not release further images almost a year later from their last online encounter. The motivation for this was to gain further images which was a serious aggravating factor. A further serious aggravating feature was disclosing the images to work colleagues and friends. 

The penalty for this offence was a Maximum: 2 years’ custody Offence range: Discharge – 1 year 6 months’ custody. The starting point for this offence was 26 weeks’ custody with a  range of 12 weeks – 1 year’s custody

The Sentencing Council issues definitive guidelines in accordance with section 120 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. The guidelines apply to all offenders aged 18 and older, who are sentenced on or after 1 October 2018, regardless of the date of the offence. 

Our client instructed us on a private basis at short notice. Our team was able to fully prepare mitigation and convince the court to impose a suspended sentence of 20 weeks for 18 months with community requirements. We were able to demonstrate our client's genuine remorse and rehabilitation.