A MAN who sent intimate photographs and videos of his wife to others without her knowledge has been jailed for 18 months.
The defendant, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of his wife, admitted sending a photo of her topless, another of her coming out of the shower and a video of her after showering to a man he knew and another he met in an adult chatroom.
The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to three offences contrary to the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court today.
Detective Garda Brian Morris of the Cork County Protective Services Unit said the woman became suspicious of her husband’s behaviour in August 2022.
When she checked his phone she discovered the images taken without her knowledge or consent and found that her husband had transmitted them to a person whom she did not know.
She contacted her family upon learning this and in the company of two of her siblings, she asked her husband to leave the family home, which he did.
A week later, a close friend of the woman called to her home to say her husband had received intimate images of the victim, which had been sent by the accused.
The images sent by the accused were accompanied by a text about his wife described by Judge Helen Boyle as “vile and degrading”.
The woman reported the matter to gardai who arrested the man, who made full admissions at interview that he had taken and transmitted the images and text to the two men.
He said he had deleted all of this material from his phone on the day that his wife confronted him about it and that he was no longer in contact with the man he met online.
The woman in her victim impact statement said her husband’s offending ruptured their family with both her daughter and son struggling to deal with what he had done.
Describing her former husband as a “self-confessed pervert” she added: “Never in my wildest nightmares could I have imagined I would have to prepare a victim impact statement in relation to sexual offences committed by my husband.
‘EXTREMELY DIFFICULT’
“I had to re-live a heinous discovery and re-associate myself with perverse and difficult predatory behaviour by the man I was married to, and the father of my children.
“It has been extremely difficult. I did not ask to be a victim of such abuse, but it is a label that I will have to live with for the rest of my life.
“The devastation the offences cause, and will continue to cause, is probably irreparable. Overnight, suddenly and catastrophically, I became a single mum.
“What choice did I have? How could I place myself in further danger of being covertly photographed and videoed by a self-confessed pervert?
‘MY CONFIDENCE HAS BEEN SHATTERED’
“I barely left the house for two years. I couldn’t face anyone locally. I didn’t know who had seen the images of me, what they thought of me. It was humiliating.
“The invasion of privacy and the violation of my bodily integrity are both extremely distressing and horrific. How will I ever be able to trust someone again?
“I have been warned that post-traumatic stress disorder may appear at any time. It is something that I will have to live with and anticipate.
“The trauma has affected me to my core and my confidence has been shattered. The horrors of the crimes committed against me are something I will always have to live with and I feel so sad about that.”
Judge Boyle said that when the accused sent the images to the man he met in the adult chatroom, he had relinquished control of the images and could not say where they went after that.
She sentenced the accused to two years in jail and suspended the last six months to encourage rehabilitation.
