Non-Consensual Sharing of Intimate Pix Could Land Man In Jail

A man entered a guilty plea to the relatively new criminal charge relating to revenge porn at Medicine Hat Court of Justice Tuesday. But sentencing was delayed to determine the particulars of the contact between the accused and victim following the offence.

Matthew Ian Mahood, 34, was initially charged following a March 29 incident in which two individuals were threatened with violence by the accused.

Mahood also had access to one of the individuals’ phones and social media accounts and threatened to share intimate images utilizing that access and subsequently did so.

Details that would identify the victim are under a statutory publication ban.

The court heard in addition to a police complaint by the victims, an associate of one of them was alarmed enough by the uncharacteristic social media posts that they contacted law enforcement independently of the initial call for service.

Mahood was subsequently arrested and charged with threats to cause bodily harm and the publication of intimate images without consent - an amendment to the Criminal Code passed by Parliament in 2015.

The man was released the following day after his arrest under conditions not to contact the victims nor be within 100 metres of their places of work or employment.

On two occasions subsequent to Mahood’s release, he was found to be in breach of those conditions by way of attendance at one of the victim’s homes – allegations which the man pled guilty to in addition to the initial offences.

But the sentencing was derailed during Mahood’s address to the court in which he indicated the post-offence contact with the victim was consensual.

However, the disagreement on the elements of the offence had Justice Ted Fisher indicating a hearing would be required to determine the facts of the post-offence contact between the Mahood and victim.

The Crown was seeking a six- to nine-month jail sentence citing the nature of posting intimate images without consent. Specifically, that the offence could be ongoing following publication on the globally accessible Internet. It was also argued a strong message of denunciation and deterrence is necessary to discourage such actions.

Defence was seeking a mixed community and custody sentence taking into account pre-trial custody as well as a period of probation.

Fisher told the court determination of whether the post offence contact between Mahood and the victim was consensual or not will “make a tremendous difference” in sentencing.

The matter will be before the courts again on July 24 to potentially hear witness testimony prior to a final sentencing decision.