Revenge porn has always been a pressing issue. However, the accessibility of smart phones, sophisticated recording equipment and social media has raised awareness of the extent to which it is made and distributed in recent years.

Only last week, news broke of two instances in which victims lives have been hugely and detrimentally impacted by covert recordings.

Peter Hartley, aged 50, was employed in a maintenance role at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. He abused his position and access to private areas to plant a covert camera in the ladies’ toilets and used the same to record women in vulnerable positions.

Mr Hartley pleaded guilty and was convicted of voyeurism at Milton Keynes Magistrates Court. He was sentenced to a prison term of sixteen months. His name will be recorded on the sex offenders register for ten years. Mr Hartley had committed similar offences in the past, including placing a camera in a local authority owned property in 2009 and hiding a camera in a leisure centre changing room in 2016.

“Sophie” was the victim of revenge porn, having had a sexual video of her uploaded to the porn website, Pornhub. “Sophie” made the film in confidence with her ex –partner. She discovered that it has been uploaded to Pornhub and viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Despite contacting Pornhub to have the videos removed, her requests were ignored. Clips and copies of the video had been made and uploaded to Pornhub, meaning that the video remains accessible by several different links. Campaign Group, #NotYourPorn, has identified that websites such as Pornhub, and the big companies in the porn industry such as MindGeek, make revenge porn seem more profitable to advertisers by labelling it “amateur” or “home made”, reducing the incentive for the websites to remove the videos.

Voyeurism and revenge porn often has profound effects on the victims. The woman who noticed the camera in the Pinewood Studios toilets has stated that she has sought professional mental health support and suffered with anxiety. “Sophie” has indicated that she felt “violated”. The experience has also put a strain on her relationship and her teenage daughter “has not been the same since” she became aware of the video’s publication.

Revenge porn was criminalised in England, Wales and Scotland in 2015. S.33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 makes it an offence to “disclose private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress” and defines revenge porn as “the sharing of private, sexual materials, either photos or videos, of another person without their consent and with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress”.

If you are the victim of voyeurism or revenge porn, you could consider taking the following steps:

  • try to keep a record of any images or recordings that have been made of you and distributed without your consent, including where and when the images and videos were published and/or the date you found the images and videos.

  • Contact the Revenge Porn Hotline to have images and recordings removed from the relevant websites.

  • You could also use your “Right to Be Forgotten” to request that search engines prevent the relevant material from being searchable.

You may be able to make a civil claim in respect of the revenge porn or voyeurism and legal advice should be taken.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of revenge porn or covert recording, you can discuss a potential claim with one of our experienced solicitors in the strictest confidence. Please telephone us on 0330 134 6430 or e-mail us at info@farleys.com.