Man kept ex-girlfriend's nude photos and threatened to leak them after break-up to make her an 'influencer'

SINGAPORE: A polytechnic student secretly kept the nude photos and videos of his girlfriend and threatened to leak them after they broke up.

He told her she had "messed with the wrong guy" and that she was going to be an influencer. He also stalked her on Microsoft Teams, which was used as a platform for lectures at her school.

The 22-year-old man was sentenced by a court on Wednesday (Nov 23) to undergo mandatory treatment for 12 months.

He cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the identity of the victim, who was his ex-girlfriend.

He pleaded guilty to three counts under the Protection from Harassment Act, with another charge taken into consideration.

The court heard that the man met the victim at a polytechnic and began a romantic relationship around April 2018.

During the relationship, he amassed more than 100 videos and photos of the victim in a state of nudity. In several of these videos, the victim was performing sex acts with the accused.

The couple later fell out and broke up sometime around December 2019.

In late 2019, the pair argued on Telegram. The victim was under the impression that the accused had deleted the nude photos and videos of her.

During this argument, the offender revealed that he still had "almost 100" of her nude videos and told her that he was going to circulate them.

He told her that she had messed with the wrong guy and that she was "gonna be an influencer". The victim was alarmed.

They had another argument on Dec 23, 2019. During the quarrel, the victim told the accused that she was going to leave the chat.

He responded: "I'm gonna leak your nudes and make sure (your) 2020 is amazing I have nothing to lose", and "so leave".

In May 2020, the man began harassing the victim with unwelcome messages on Microsoft Teams.

The victim had to use the application as it was the platform for lectures at her school. By this point, she had blocked her ex-boyfriend on other social media platforms and made it clear to him that she did not wish to have any further contact.

Despite this, the man continued to send messages to the victim on Microsoft Teams from May 2020 to July 2020. Most of the messages involved him trying to guilt-trip the victim, court documents stated.

The victim finally lodged a police report against the man on Jul 4, 2020, saying he had harassed and stalked her and threatened to release her nude videos.

The judge had called for reports assessing the offender's suitability for probation and a mandatory treatment order, which directs an offender suffering from certain treatable psychiatric conditions to undergo psychiatric treatment.

He was found suitable for a mandatory treatment order, but not recommended for probation. He was diagnosed by the Institute of Mental Health as having a major depressive episode at the time of the offences.

The prosecution did not object to the imposition of a mandatory treatment order.