Cyber-f lasher who targeted woman and girl jailed in first-ever case
A PERVERT who sent online photos of his private parts to a 15-year-old girl and a woman has become the first person in England and Wales to be jailed for cyber-flashing.
Nicholas Hawkes was reported to police after sending the unsolicited offensive images via Whats-App on February 9.
Three days later the 39-yearold, from Basildon, Essex, admitted at Southend Magistrates’ Court two counts of sending a photograph or film of genitals to cause alarm, distress or humiliation. The offence of cyber-flashing came into force on January 31 as part of the Online Safety Act and carries a maximum twoyear jail term.
Hawkes, who last year became a convicted sex offender, was jailed yesterday for 66 weeks at Basildon Crown Court.
Campaigners welcomed the sentence, claiming the case registered an important warning over unsolicited intimate photos.
Professor Clare McGlynn, an expert in sexual violence and online abuse from the University of Durham’s law department, said: ‘It is sending a clear message to men and boys that this type of behaviour is wrong and it could be a criminal offence and importantly, to women and girls, who will no longer have to put up with this.’
But she claimed the law contained a loophole as the prosecution must prove the offensive image was sent with an intent to cause distress or for the purpose of sexual gratification while being reckless about causing offence.
The explosion in the use of social media and direct messaging has led to a third of women becoming victims of cyber-flashing, according to a report from women’s social network Communia. This rises to nearly two-fifths of 16 to 34-year-olds.
The Angiolini Inquiry into Wayne Couzens, the police officer who murdered Sarah Everard after no action was taken for a series of flashing offences, also emphasised that police must take this crime seriously. Prosecutor David Barr told the court the offences ‘fall as part of an established pattern of behaviour of the defendant’.
In May last year, Hawkes stripped naked in a GP surgery in Basildon before crossing the road and approaching a resident.
Two months later, he went up to a group of young people in a park in the town while wearing only trainers and engaged in a ‘sexual conversation’ before he ‘kissed one girl and hugged another’.
He was convicted of sexual activity with a child under 16 and exposure but was spared a prison sentence and received a community order. He was also placed on the sex offenders register until 2033.
Hawkes admitted he had breached the order and breached a suspended sentence for another sexual offence.
‘Sentence sends a clear message’