A man who hacked into a woman’s email account and sent “revenge porn” pictures of her to a swingers website has launched an appeal against his prison sentence.
Gordon Sime, 63, bombarded the woman with phone calls and text messages.
His victim moved house and kept her new address a secret, only for him to find out and be spotted regularly lurking behind cars outside her home.
He then changed tactics and covertly accessed her email to send explicit pictures of her to a random man, along with her phone number and an invitation to “text if he liked them”.
His actions, committed in Dundee, Errol and elsewhere, were only uncovered when the man sent her a message confirming he had received the pictures.
During sentencing in a previous hearing at Dundee Sheriff Court, Sheriff Tom Hughes told Sime he had committed an “appalling, vile crime” and one that had a significant impact upon his victim, who had been left “depressed and insecure”.
The court was told that the woman’s face was not visible in the pictures sent by Sime, but that she recognised them. Police officers searched Sime’s home on May 5 2014 and seized his laptop, discovering evidence that he had “hacked into” email addresses, read emails and changed passwords.
Sime, of High Street, Campbeltown, Argyll, admitted sending emails to another person via the woman’s email address containing explicit images of her along with her mobile phone number.
He also admitted engaging in conduct that caused the woman fear or alarm by repeatedly sending her text messages and making phone calls and accessing her email address without her authority in order to obtain current information about her between September 1 2013 and April 28 2014.
During sentencing, Sheriff Hughes said: “This required considerable planning on your part — it was not a spur-of-the-moment offence.”
Sime was jailed for two years last month, but will appeal his sentence on April 12.
Attempts by the Tele to contact Sime’s lawyer were unsuccessful.
Sinead Daly, the manager of Vice Versa, a sector of the Dundee-based Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, said “revenge porn” was a serious problem and that was why the sentence imposed on Sime was so strong.
She said: “I’m reluctant to comment on this case as I don’t know about it, but I would say that the issue of ‘revenge porn’ is a growing phenomenon and it is a form of partner-controlled behaviour.
“I would think that is why the sentence is what it is.”
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