My revenge porn ordeal as ex posted intimate pics of me online
Victim speaks out as former lover dodges jail sentence
A MAN who shared intimate images of his former girlfriend after she ended their relationship was ordered yesterday to pay her £500 in compensation.
Kelly McGurk, 29, was left devastated after her former partner Jamie Leitch sent naked pictures and a video of her to his friends.
The pictures were shared with dozens of people after Miss McGurk called a halt to their four-year relationship and dumped him.
Leitch, 25, of Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, appeared in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court in July and admitted sending the explicit images after their relationship broke down.
He has now been ordered to pay Miss McGurk compensation and do 250 hours of unpaid work, and has been placed on the sex offenders’ register for 18 months.
Miss McGurk, a beauty therapy student from Erskine, Renfrewshire, who has waived her right to anonymity, said she was pleased with the sentence.
She added: ‘I am delighted with this result. It just shows that I never lied about what happened to me.
‘I hope this will maybe come as a warning to others that consider doing it and encourage victims to come forward and report this sort of thing to the police.’
Mother-of-one Miss McGurk previously told how she had no idea he had recorded her.
She said: ‘He sent the photos to his friends and girls he was trying to go out with. I went through hell and took all sorts of abuse. There were several of them. One of them was a full naked picture of me…
‘There was a video… and at that point I trusted him and I didn’t think he would have been that perverted to take a video of me. I was in the moment and you don’t think about things like that when you are in a relationship. I was with the guy for four years – I didn’t think he would do something like that.
‘A couple of the pictures I did send him but, because of how controlling the relationship was, he pressurised me into sending him pictures by threatening to finish the relationship.’
The couple met at a call centre four years ago. Miss McGurk added: ‘We moved in together quite quickly but after a year it went all downhill.’
She said Leitch ‘became really jealous’ and she eventually ‘ended it and stopped all contact’.
She is now encouraging other young women who have been a victim of revenge porn to report the crime to police.
A law aimed at tackling the rise in revenge porn came into effect across Scotland last month. It means anyone convicted of disclosing or threatening to disclose an intimate photo or video will face up to five years in prison.
The offence will cover situations where someone shares filmed or still images of another person in an intimate situation.
Miss McGurk said: ‘I didn’t realise how serious a crime it was.
‘I did speak to the police for advice and that’s when they let me know how serious it was in this country and how seriously the police do take it.
‘This doesn’t just happen outside relationships, it can happen in a trusted relationship and, if it ever happens to you, don’t be intimidated. Don’t be scared by the personal threats.
‘Come forward, go to the police and get them charged for it.’
Leitch pleaded guilty to electronically sending sexually explicit images of Miss McGurk on January 4 this year.