Ex-lover’s 6 months in jail for revenge porn pics
A SPURNED boyfriend who posted ‘revenge porn’ pictures of his ex-girlfriend on Twitter has been jailed for six months.
Kevin McKeeve, 26, shared intimate snaps of the woman on the social media website, causing her fear and alarm.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard how the painter and decorator had bombarded her with texts threatening to put the images online.
McKeeve posted the pictures on a Twitter account he had set up to message his former girlfriend and on a business account.
He told his victim: ‘You get what you deserve.’
The court heard that the woman was left in an ‘extremely distressed state’ after a friend told her the
‘Extremely distressed’
photos were online. She informed her brother and he contacted police. McKeeve was then arrested.
At an earlier court hearing McKeeve pleaded guilty to placing the woman in a state of fear and alarm by posting the intimate pictures online. He also admitted approaching her in a pub and threatening to put the pictures on the internet.
Sentence was deferred for an assessment by social workers and he returned to the dock yesterday.
Defence solicitor Eamonn McGeehan told the court that the woman had blocked McKeeve from ‘ all forms of electronic communication’ because ‘ she didn’t wish to continue any form of relationship with the accused, romantic or otherwise’.
But the lawyer produced screenshots showing texts between the woman and his client on July 14 last year – four days before she was told the pictures were online. He said McKeeve had ‘blocked her on his iPhone account’ and added: ‘During the period of the libel, they remained in contact with each other. Rejection combined with alcohol can be very potent.
‘He has behaved very badly and he accepts that. He regrets it and wants to make amends.
‘The internet is a dangerous place. Young people, in particular, seem prone to behaving in a way they wouldn’t normally.
‘That’s what’s happened here and he regrets it and he’s remorseful.’
The lawyer added that McKeeve, of Erskine, Renfrewshire, was seeking help for his alcohol abuse and said the opinion of social workers that he could be given a commu- nity payback order was ‘a sound option’.
But Sheriff David Pender ruled he could only deal with such ‘a very gross breach of trust’ and ‘spiteful revenge’ by jailing McKeeve.
Sentencing him to six months behind bars, reduced from eight months because of the guilty plea, he said: ‘Young people seem to be quite happy to take photos of each other and distribute them to those able to access them.’
McKeeve looked shocked as sentence was passed, then waved to family before being led to the cells.
It comes after MSPs this week backed plans for tough new laws to tackle the ‘enormously hurtful and humiliating’ rise of so- called revenge porn.
Holyrood’s justice committee supported the Scottish Government’s Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Bill proposals, which would make it an offence to share private intimate images without consent. A maximum of five years’ imprisonment could be imposed for the offence.
MSPs heard evidence of the ‘devastating’ effect revenge porn can have on people’s lives, and how the justice system needs to improve its response to such abuse, harassment and sexual harm.
A majority of MSPs on the committee backed the proposals.