London – A woman has warned has warned other women not to send racy photographs to their boyfriends – after her ex-lover posted private pictures of her on the internet in a so-called ‘revenge porn’ attack.
Cazine McCarthy, 20, was horrified when builder Nathan Lloyd shared a picture of her in her underwear and an intimate video on social networking website Instagram.
She was persuaded to send them to the 22-year-old when they were dating – but the images became ammunition for Lloyd after she decided to end the relationship.
Lloyd used McCarthy’s account to upload the pictures and then changed her password, meaning she was unable to remove them from view of her 500 followers – or millions of other users of the site.
The images were eventually taken down after McCarthy’s friends reported them as ‘inappropriate or offensive’ to Instagram hundreds of times in a bid to have them removed faster.
Revenge porn, when ex-partners share sexually explicit content of their lovers without permission, was made illegal in October last year, and can result in up to two years in jail.
Issuing a warning to women, McCarthy said: ‘Nathan said I could trust him and that he would never show anyone else.
‘I would never have thought that a moment of madness would have caused me so much grief and heartache. Looking back it was stupid and I’d never do it again.
‘Women have to protect themselves. Not knowing where my picture has been shared is so frightening.’
McCarthy said Lloyd became ‘controlling’ while they were dating, taking note of the passwords to her social media accounts so he could ‘check up’ on her. She added: ‘He followed me to town once or twice. His possessive behaviour gave me the creeps.
‘That’s when I decided to end it. But breaking up with him only made it worse. He turned nasty and uploaded the private images I’d sent him as revenge.’
McCarthy said she fears she has become the talk of her home town of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, as a result of the attack. She said that her face is clearly visible in the photo in which she is posing in a blue corset, while she can be identified in the video by a rose tattoo on her side.
The mother of one said: ‘I’ve lost total control. I know people locally are talking about me and everyone knows what happened.
‘What’s worse is that my followers would have thought I wanted them to see me naked. It was mortifying.’
After Lloyd posted the images, she begged him to take them down but he replied with abusive messages. He also called at her house and broke down her back door in a rage – at which point the police became involved. Last week magistrates in Haverfordwest handed Lloyd a restraining order after he admitted criminal damage and posting the image and video.
He was also given a 24-month ‘Building Better Relationships’ order, a programme for men who have been violent in relationships, and was ordered to pay costs totalling £145.
McCarthy added: ‘Looking back I wouldn’t have sent him the photo or the video but I can’t change what happened.
‘What I can do is discourage other women from making the same mistake. Even if you think you love and trust someone you don’t know how they will react when you break up.’
Daily Mail