EXPOSED: MISERY OF ‘DISTRESS PORN’
I was having a nervous breakdown... instead of calling for help he stood there and filmed me
THE Evening Times today lifts the lid on a horrifying form of abuse which is leaving victims on the brink of suicide.
Vile perpetrators of ‘distress porn’ deliberately record vulnerable victims at their lowest ebb – and then post the videos online in a final act of humiliation.
We have spoken to one sufferer whose then boyfriend filmed her self harming during a breakdown, and then claimed he was the victim and forced his ex to relive the experience in court.
A DISTURBING new trend for ‘distress porn’ – filming a vulnerable person at breaking point – should be punishable under the new psychological abuse law, experts say.
Domestic abuse and mental health campaigners have demanded cops take action after we learned of the sadistic new trend. It comes as a number of victims have been filmed either suicidal or in distress by their ex-partners as part of “despicable” humiliation tactic.
One young professional told us how her ex-partner filmed her attempting to selfharm before sharing the video on social media.
The woman, who asked not to be named, was hauled in front of a court and forced to watch the distressing footage when her former partner claimed he suffered ‘fear and alarm’ during her traumatic ordeal.
She told the Evening Times: “I had depression and anxiety for a long time as a result of the relationship and he would play mind games to the point where I thought I was going insane.
“I hit breaking point one night and basically tried to self-harm in front of him because I was having a nervous breakdown.
“Instead of calling for help, my ex-boyfriend stood there and filmed me.
“Someone came to collect me and took me to the hospital that night and they’d told me he’d deleted the video.
“I had no idea he kept the footage and the next thing I knew I was being taken to court for my breakdown.
“I was made to sit through the entire video in court, sobbing uncontrollably, as my ex stood there and asked for the video to be replayed over and over again.
“It triggered extreme trauma and that night I went down to the River Clyde and basically went to kill myself because I couldn’t handle the humiliation.
“Luckily someone saw what I was doing and talked me down.
“I went to the police after I’d heard he was sharing the humiliating footage of me on Whatsapp but they said they couldn’t do anything. I think it’s disgusting that anyone could do something like this and escape punishment.”
She added: “I now live in a state of constant anxiety and depression – he’s ruined my life.”
It comes after we revealed how serial abuser John McDade was jailed for four years over horrific domestic abuse, including one incident where he filmed his partner in distress on a bathroom floor before threatening to send the footage to her employer.
The 37-year-old comic was deemed “manipulative” and a “serious danger to women” after being convicted of inflicting beatings upon two women and two counts of stalking.
Between September 2014 and August 2016, he filmed one woman crying on the bathroom floor and told her he would humiliate her by sending the video to her work.
Sheriff O’ Carroll said the incident caused him “particular disgust” after stating that McDade had reduced the woman to a “pitiful state” through his abuse before taking advantage of her vulnerability.
Last night domestic abuse campaigner Dr Mairead Tagg described the sinister trend as an attempt to “humiliate, degrade, control, demean, control and hurt a partner.”
The Glasgow-based psychologist hit out: “I’m appalled by this. This could drive someone to suicide and this is an abuser’s attempt to isolate their victim.
“It’s not okay for people to post sexually explicit images and videos and images like this, so if we look at the new law which has come into course which is psychological abuse, this is exactly that.
“Would your first duty of care not be to try and comfort the person who is suicidal, to talk them down? To contact the police or the ambulance service?
“You have a responsibility to put their well being at the centre of your interventions, instead of standing there and quite cynically filming her to discredit and humiliate her. Is this a measure of his distress? I think it’s a measure of how truly a truly non empathetic person. “He’s a really dangerous person.” “This is being deliberately done to humiliate, degrade, control, demean, control and hurt a partner.
“In my view I think he’s broken the law and I’m a little bit surprised that the police didn’t try harder to prosecute the young professional’s ex-partner.”
Dr Tagg said there must be a change in law to prevent harmful footage being taken by perpetrators.
She also was disgusted that the woman was taken to court and forced to sit through the horrifying footage.
The top psychologist said: “There needs to be a law which prevents someone from using any form of distressing content to psychologically abuse their victims.
“The fact that the woman from Glasgow was arrested and the court played that video is also highly questionable.
“This is coercive control in its purest form and I find it astonishing that in 2019 abusers are still getting away with this.
“It’s inexcusable. This is also designed to subordinate and to defame the woman.
“We really can’t keep making excuses for people who behave like this.
“Anyone that behaves like that needs to be held to account – it’s not on.
“This is him using the Criminal Justice System to continue to oppress and abuse his partner. Very often the perpetrator will use a video to try and shame them and terrorise them.
“This video has clearly been used to victimise, harm and punish his victim and it’s not unusual.
“This should be regarding a lot more seriously by the police and it seems to me that there’s a significant training issue there. With the rise of social media this just becomes another weapon in the abuser’s armoury.
“These are not simply knuckle-dragging morons, they are often reasonably sophisticated and creative in the way that they seek new ways to humiliate and degrade their partners, quite often through the criminal justice system.”
Bosses at mental health charity See Me Scotland urged those working within the justice system must be trained to learn more about mental health discrimination.
Calum Irving, director of the charity, said: “Filming someone when they are in distress, at risk of self-harm, struggling with their mental health or feeling suicidal, is a particularly horrible form of discrimination.
“We would urge those in the criminal justice system to look out for people’s welfare and their mental health.
“If someone is in distress they deserve to get help and support, and be treated with compassion, not humiliated.
“No-one should ever be made to feel ashamed or embarrassed when they are experiencing mental health problems.”
There needs to be a law which prevents someone from using any form of distressing content to psychologically abuse their victims