A man who stalked a woman before hacking her email account and sending revenge porn pictures of her to a swingers’ website has been jailed for two years for the “vile” crime.
Gordon Sime, 63, bombarded the woman with text messages and phone calls on a daily basis after they broke up – before being spotted lurking behind cars outside her house.
He then covertly accessed her email to send pictures of himself and his victim having sex to a random man – along with her phone number and an invitation to “text if he liked them”.
His betrayal was only uncovered when the man sent her a message confirming he had received the pictures.
During sentencing at Dundee Sheriff Court, Sheriff Tom Hughes told him he had committed an “appalling, vile crime” and one that had a significant impact upon his victim.
Depute Fiscal Eilidh Robertson told the court that Sime had “bombarded” the woman with texts and calls “on an almost daily basis” after they broke up.
She then moved to a new address and kept it secret from Sime, but was horrified to discover that he had somehow discovered her new address.
He was spotted lurking outside on numerous occasions by family members and challenged about his actions.
Sime then changed tactics and used his computer expertise to hack into his victim’s computer, gaining control of her email.
Horrified by the messages from the user of the singers’ website, his victim challenged him and was told that he had been sent sexual images of her from her account.
Miss Robertson said the woman had recognised the email address as her own and on trying to access her email found that her password had been changed.
She was eventually able to log-on and discovered that two messages had been sent to the stranger.
The court heard that her face was not visible in either but that she recognised them as ones she had consensually allowed Sime to take during their relationship.
Police officers subsequently searched Sime’s home on May 5, during which a laptop was seized.
It was analysed and an extensive history was found of the accused ‘hacking into’ a number of email addresses belonging to her and reading her emails.
There was also extensive evidence of the accused repeatedly changing her email account passwords.
Sime, 63, of High Street, Campbelltown, Argyll, pled to a charge of stalking between September 1, 2013 and April 28, 2014 at addresses in Errol, Perthshire, in Dundee and elsewhere.
Sheriff Hughes jailed him for two years and imposed a four-year non harassment order.
He said: “This required considerable planning on your part – it was not a spur of the moment offence.
“It had a very real impact on the complainer – she has been left depressed and insecure.
“The courts will not tolerate this and in view of the serious nature of the offence custody is inevitable.”