Revenge porn soars to 17 cases per week

Call to make tackling ‘humiliating’ crime a priority

THE number of Scots falling victim to ‘revenge porn’ has doubled in four years.

Official figures show that 912 cases were recorded last year – more than 17 a week – compared with 421 in 2017.

Campaigners say tackling the ‘humiliating’ crime should be made a priority. It comes after North Lanarkshire Council reported a possible ‘targeted in revenge porn plot’ involving a councillor.

Revenge porn is aimed at inflicting embarrassment and shame on victims through sexually explicit images of them being shared online, typically by a former partner.

Perpetrators can face up to five years in jail and be placed on the sex offenders’ register.

A spokesman for Victim Support Scotland told 1919 magazine: ‘The figures surrounding the increase in cases of imagebased sexual abuse are significant. Sharing private sexually explicit images online or offline, regardless of the intent, is a criminal offence. It is a violation of privacy and many victims often feel humiliated, traumatised and ashamed.’

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Jamie Greene said that people who disclose or threaten to disclose an intimate image online ‘deserve serious punishment’. The MSP for West Scotland said: ‘We should also focus on prevention as sex crimes are at an all-time high under this SNP government.

‘Tackling this rise should be one of their top priorities.’

Detective Superintendent Gillian Faulds of the National Domestic Abuse Taskforce said it was ‘encouraging’ that more victims were coming forward.

She added: ‘This is a serious criminal offence and we remain committed to robustly investigating these matters. We encourage victims to come forward at an early stage, which will better enable us to secure evidence, as well as provide the necessary support.’

Broadening the law – including criminalising ‘revenge porn threats’ – has been backed by the domestic violence charity Refuge and Love Island reality TV star Zara McDermott, who has revealed that she was a victim, aged 14.

In the White Wine Question Time podcast, she said there was a ‘generational difference and misunderstanding’ on technology’s impact on relationships amid a rise in use of social media and smartphones.

‘It’s the person who goes on to betray that confidence, and share that to someone else is when it becomes a breach of your privacy,’ she added.

Two years ago, Citizens Advice Scotland said it had seen a spike in requests for help over intimate images being shared without consent.