Original article: Condenan a cárcel efectiva a hombre por difundir imágenes íntimas sin consentimiento y amenazar a su expareja

Man Sentenced to Prison for Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent and Threatening Ex-Partner

The Oral Criminal Court in Rancagua has sentenced a man to effective prison for sharing intimate images without consent and threatening his ex-partner.

In this ruling, J.A.P.P. will serve 4 years and 187 days in prison, along with a fine of 12 UTM (approximately $860,000), for the completed crime of capturing and disseminating private images. Additionally, he received a 300-day sentence for the completed crime of simple threats. These offenses were committed in the municipality within the region of O’Higgins.

The unanimous ruling by judges Mariano Rubio, Felipe Cortés, and Paola González also imposed accessory penalties including a lifetime total disqualification from political rights and absolute disqualification from holding public offices for the duration of the sentence, as well as covering the costs of the legal proceedings.

The events date back to the romantic relationship that J.A.P.P. had with the victim between January and April 2022, during which he exploited their intimacy to take photographs of her while she was asleep, without her consent.

After the relationship ended, he distributed these images between December 2022 and the first half of 2023 via social media.

On April 10, 2023, the situation escalated when the woman began receiving threatening emails at her home that included statements like: «I will kidnap you, just wait, I will kill you, I will drug you, I won’t let you be calm until you are dead, I will upload your intimate photos to social media.»

In its ruling, the Rancagua court found that the accused recorded images in a private context, of the intimate area of his then-partner, and subsequently shared them without her consent via email «to the mother of (the victim) and her ex-partner.» He also hacked her Instagram account to falsely portray that she was offering sexual services while attaching those images.

«J.A.P.P.’s conduct fulfilled all legal requirements for the penal type under study, a fact which awarded him the role of executing author of the attributed crime, according to numeral 1 of Article 15 of the Penal Statute,» the ruling stated.

Regarding the threat charge, the judges determined that the defendant sent messages to the victim using fake profiles on social media during the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023, «since the young woman decided to end her romantic relationship with him, which provoked him to threaten her with death, physical harm, and damage to her property; all actions were serious and believable as the accused intended to instill fear in the victim (and her environment), a goal he accomplished entirely.»

The sentence also emphasized that the ongoing harassment was corroborated by the mother and current partner of the victim, who witnessed her «calvary that lasted a long time, as she received continual text messages via Facebook and Instagram (which the defendant had hacked), all of which the accused admitted in court.»