A MAN who sent intimate photos and videos of his wife to other men which were taken without her knowledge or consent has been jailed for 18 months.
BY OLIVIA KELLEHER
The 57-year old man, who can’t be named to protect the anonymity of his wife, appeared before Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Det Garda Brian Morris of the Cork County Protective Services Unit said that the images and videos were taken without the permission of the man’s wife. She also never agreed to them being sent to other men.
The man admitted sending a photo of his wife coming out of the shower, a picture of her topless and a video of her emerging from the shower, to both a man he knew and a man he got to know in an adult chat room.
The man entered a guilty plea to three offences contrary to the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020.
Det Garda Brian Morris of the Cork County Protective Services Unit told Judge Helen Boyle that the woman became suspicious of the behaviour of her husband in August 2022.
She checked his phone and found the images which were taken without her knowledge. She noticed that her spouse had sent the two images and video to a man she did not know.The woman asked her husband to leave the family home following the shocking discovery. The following week, a friend of hers informed her that her husband had received an intimate image of the woman. The image had been sent to the man by the husband of the victim.
Judge Boyle said that the text which accompanied the sending of the images and video was ‘vile and degrading’.
The man was arrested and took responsibility for what had occurred. He said that he deleted all of the images on the day his wife ended their marriage.
In a victim impact statement the woman said that she struggled to absorb what her husband had done to her.
‘Never in my wildest nightmares could I have imagined I would have to prepare a Victim Impact Statement in relation to sexual offences committed by my husband.
‘I had to re-live a heinous discovery and re-associate myself with perverse and difficult predatory behaviour by the man I was married to, and the father of my children.
‘The devastation the offences cause, and will continue to cause, is probably irreparable. Overnight, suddenly and catastrophically, I became a single mum.
‘What choice did I have? How could I place myself in further danger of being covertly photographed and videoed by a self-confessed pervert.
‘I barely left the house for two years. I couldn’t face anyone locally. I didn’t know who had seen the images of me – what they thought of me – it was humiliating.
‘The trauma has affected me to my core and my confidence has been shattered. The horrors of the crimes committed against me are something I will always have to live with and I feel so sad about that.’
Judge Boyle said that the man had caused enormous damage to both his wife and to his children in what was a massive betrayal and breach of trust. She jailed the man for two years suspending the last six months of the sentence.
