Suspecting that his estranged wife was having an affair, a man stole the 30-year-old woman’s phone and found photos and videos of her with her supervisor.
He used his own phone to capture these images and videos and posted intimate photos of his wife on Facebook, claiming that he did not want others to “share the same fate as him”.
The 27-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Sep 21) to a charge each of theft and distributing an intimate image. Another two charges will be considered in sentencing.
The court heard that the man was married to the victim at the time of the offences in February last year, but had moved out of the matrimonial home.
On Feb 6, 2020, he went to the victim’s home requesting to use the toilet, even though he had moved out a few months earlier.
After using the toilet in the master bedroom, the man took his wife’s mobile phone and ran out of the house, with his wife on his tail.
She could not keep up with him, and the man looked through her phone as he suspected she was having an affair.
He found several intimate images and videos of the victim and used his own phone to photograph and film the footage.
These include a four-second clip of the victim’s chest with her face partially visible, a 16-second video of her fully naked, and an image of the victim having sex with her supervisor at work, with both faces fully visible.
The accused returned to his wife’s home shortly after and returned the phone, but did not tell her he had the intimate images and recordings in his possession.
At around 8am on Feb 12, 2020, the accused decided to post his wife’s intimate images on Facebook “so that everyone can see them”, the prosecutor said.
He claimed he did so as he did not “want others to share the same fate as him”. He set the post to “public” so that everyone could see it, and included the name and occupation of his wife’s supervisor in the post.
He described the supervisor as a homewrecker and warned people to be aware of him. The post included the image of his wife having sex with her supervisor, as well as photos of her supervisor and screenshots of text conversations his wife had with her supervisor.
A friend of the supervisor informed him about the post within an hour, while the accused’s wife received calls from her friends telling her what happened.
The post went viral and was shared about 2,000 times by 4pm that day, with about 3,000 likes and 1,000 comments.
The accused removed the post as he did not expect it to “receive so much attention”, the court heard.
He will return to court for mitigation and sentencing next month.
For theft, he could be jailed up to seven years and fined. For intentionally distributing an intimate image of another person, he could be jailed up to five years, fined, caned, or given a combination of these punishments.
