A Dundee man who threatened to publish an intimate photograph of a woman on social media has been ordered to do unpaid work in the community.
Kieran Coyle, 20, is only the second person to be convicted under the new revenge porn legislation and the first in Dundee, according to the Crown Office.
Coyle, of Laird Street in Dundee, had previously admitted that on July 7, 2017, at 100 Laird Street or elsewhere unknown, he threatened to disclose a photograph which showed or appeared to show a woman in an intimate situation and threatened to share a consensual explicit image of the woman on social media, which was likely to cause fear, alarm or distress.
The court heard that Coyle had threatened the revenge porn action as she was due him money.
The court was told he met the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, through a dating app and subsequently communicated with her over social media.
They exchanged “explicit” pictures with each other but the relationship went sour after the woman failed to repay money Coyle had loaned to her and he threatened to post an image of the woman on social media.
Sheriff George Way deferred sentence last month for criminal justice social work reports to be prepared.
He said: “There is a great deal of publicity concerning this type of behaviour and it is important that examples of it are punished.”
Solicitor Jim Laverty, representing Coyle, told the court that his client was “very embarrassed with himself”.
Mr Laverty said: “They met through a dating app and communicated through social media.
“They then found difficulties because Mr Coyle, who was in full-time employment at the time, offered to lend her money.
“The money was then not repaid and he intimated that he would share the image because of this.
“It was a threat but it was probably a threat that he would have never carried out.
“He accepts that this would have caused stress to the young lady.
“He is very embarrassed with himself.
“The image we are dealing with was not of a particularly indecent nature but, nonetheless, it was an image that may have caused the young lady distress.
“He asked me to apologise on his behalf for the stress he caused.”
It comes after the Scottish Government launched a campaign highlighting the dangers of so-called “revenge porn”.
The hard-hitting posters show a mobile phone with nude pictures covered in crime scene tape.
Sheriff Way placed Coyle on a community payback order with the undertaking to do 100 hours of unpaid work.
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