Woman reprimanded, ex gets no compensation in case involving leaked nude photos

A young woman has been reprimanded and discharged for throwing a stone at her ex boyfriend’s vehicle. She said she did this in retaliation for him hitting her with his vehicle after an argument where she accused him of leaking her private photographs.

“Based on the facts and circumstances of this case, I am not ordering any compensation,” Senior Magistrate, Rickie Burnett told the parties after hearing both sides. He said that if the complainant (the ex-boyfriend) wanted compensation he could take private action.

A 24 year old woman appeared as a defendant in the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court (KMC) on Wednesday, March 2 charged that, without lawful excuse, she damaged her former lover’s vehicle to the tune of $1070.

It was revealed that the two were in a relationship for two years before calling it quits three months ago.

Last Friday, February 25, at around 6:00p.m, the defendant’s ex-boyfriend, a 25-year-old Edinboro resident, was parked in the Massy parking lot of Arnos Vale. The defendant approached his car, opened the door, and questioned him about nude photographs of her circulating on her social media. She accused him of posting them but he denied it.

Apparently this upset the ex-girlfriend and she started to kick the vehicle including the mirror, and slammed the door. He told the police that he drove off but she ran in front of the vehicle and started to kick and beat the Suzuki Swift with her hands. He continued to drive and she followed him, he said, and threw an object at the back of the vehicle, damaging the trunk.

A report was made to the police.
The ex-girlfriend told the magistrate that the private photographs had been taken with her ex-boyfriend’s phone.

“The reason why I hit the car with a stone, he hit me with his car, and drove off. I was given medical papers, I did them and I brought them back…”

She said, “I never put myself in the way – I never kicked his car. I never did none of that. I am not an iron woman to throw myself in front of a vehicle,”the woman told the court.

“But you damaged the car because of your belief that he is the one that embarrassed you in the public?” queried Burnett.

“No I damage his car because he hit me,” with his car and then pulled off, the defendant responded.

She clarified that she did not throw the object because of the photographs, “No I had already walked away from the car” she said, and he sped up and hit her.

“I have witnesses to prove that he hit me with the car,” she said.

The magistrate told her that if he did something illegal to her she should have reported it to the police, to which she said she did.

“Right, the matter would have been investigated and the charge may or may not have been brought but you can’t settle the matter on your own by damaging his car,” Burnett pointed, saying that this was where she went wrong.

When asked what he wanted from the court in this matter, the ex-boyfriend replied, “I want she to leave me alone, stop posting me on the (social) media.”

Since the complainant didn’t ask for compensation the magistrate asked him whether this meant he was leaving that alone. The complainant responded, “no”.

“You want her to compensate you for the vehicle?” Burnett asked him.

The complainant said yes, “I didn’t do her nothing.”

Burnett asked him his age and he replied that he was 25. “You’re still young and inexperienced in life. As you get older you will see life, or see things differently,” he said.

The ex-boyfriend also said he was working. He maintained that he wanted compensation.

“The lady is angry at you, was angry and was hurt,” the magistrate told him.

“Your honour I didn’t post no picture with her, I didn’t send no picture,” he said.

“The picture was taken on his phone, in his bedroom, on his bed,” the defendant said.

She also stated, “….you cannot tell me that you don’t know anything about those pictures. That is not a reasonable answer why my pictures and them is all over the (social) media. My mother done see them, I am supposed to leave St Vincent and my mother is like…she is, she’s not gonna accept that.”

“Who you want me to go to? It’s you I have to come to,” she continued.

The ex-boyfriend said something, and she responded “why would I leak my own nudes? That mek sense? That don’t mek no sense.”

“Why would I put myself out there like that?” she asked, saying that she was getting the wrong kind of attention because of the photos.

“Is plenty different attention I’m getting from those pictures. Males from all over the place calling my phone messaging me,” asking her for intercourse, she disclosed.

“You can’t expect me to live my life knowing everything is alright…” she told him, having known that the photos were on his phone.

The magistrate told the former boyfriend: “I understand (the defendant) to be saying that the only phone that was used to take those photos was the one that was in your care…it doesn’t mean that you leaked them personally but it could mean that you were careless with your phone. And if you were careless with your phone then you have some responsibility for exposing the lady.”

The ex-girlfriend told the magistrate, “He claimed that he wiped his phone, he claimed that he doesn’t have anyone around him, which is a lie.”

“Because as soon as me and he finish he move on to a different female.”

The ex-boyfriend began to say something but she said, “Let me speak please,” and the magistrate told him to let her speak.

She submitted that there was a woman with whom he was hanging out and “I have the text with him saying yes, the pictures was on his phone but he doesn’t know how they got out.”

The defendant recalled that she asked if he was sure that a female didn’t know the password. She commented that as a woman herself, she knows that women “know stuff and move like if they ain know nothing.”

“I asked him, I said ‘you sure is females don’t be around you?’, he said no. He said that he wiped his phone, he said that the females don’t know his password,” she said. “So how the pictures reach on the (social) media? They had to come out somehow.”

The magistrate told the complainant, “you had a duty to protect the privacy of the lady’s photos.”

“…when a relationship comes to an end you have to recognise that you have to protect the privacy of the person you were with,” Burnett also stated.

The defendant added that she only started posting about him after the photos were leaked.

After all was said, the magistrate made his decision to reprimand and discharge the young woman and not to order compensation.