A Fife woman has narrowly avoided being placed on the Sex Offenders Register after sending a naked photo of a man to a family friend.
A sheriff ruled Nataleigh King’s actions were borne out of frustration, rather than her having a sexual motive.
He said making her subject to registration requirements would also have had an impact on the 23-year-old’s ability to attend events involving her young child.
She was placed on supervision for two years.
‘Watch where your nudes end up’
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard King had taken five days from making an initial threat to sending the image.
Fiscal depute Michael Robertson said: “At 7.42am the complainer was within the locus when he received a Facebook message from the accused.
“It stated: ‘I see your car is getting done in – just like you, you pr**k’.
“The accused continued to send messages stating she had an indecent image of him she would send to others.
“The complainer was aware of the image the accused had, which was one of him lying naked in the bath.”
Mr Robertson said later the same day King had left a voice message on the victim’s phone in which she stated: “Watch where your nudes end up”.
He said: “He feared the accused would carry out this action and contacted police.”
‘Ashamed and remorseful’
Five days later King carried out the threat by sending the image to a family friend of the man.
Mr Robertson said: “She (the family friend) was within her home address when she observed a Facebook post regarding the complainer.
“She then saw a Facebook message from the accused containing the naked picture.
“She was shocked to see this image as the complainer was a family friend and she informed the complainer of this information.”
Solicitor Martin Maguire said King had a number of stresses in her personal life.
He said: “She’s ashamed and remorseful and she recognises the seriousness of her actions”.
Prison was considered
King, of Seton Terrace, admitted sending offensive messages to the man at an address in Glenrothes on March 2 this year.
In them, she made threats of violence towards him.
She further admitted threatening to disclose the intimate image on the same day.
King also admitted sending the intimate image to a woman at a different Glenrothes address on March 9.
Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith told King he regards “revenge porn” as an offence worthy of a custodial sentence.
He said: “Clearly you conducted yourself in a less than satisfactory way.
“There would have been a better way to deal with it.
“It’s only because of your age, your lack of record and your background that you’re not going to jail.”
He added that she would not be subject to the sex offender notification requirements.
