US revenge porn extortionist jailed for 18 years in precedent ruling
A US man has been jailed for 18 years for running a revenge porn website which extorted victims to have their explicit images and videos removed.
Kevin Bollaert, 28, was found guilty of running ugotposted.com, a site which administered the upload of over 10,000 revenge porn images reports Sky News.
Setting the site aside from other revenge porn domains was the fact that uploaders had to provide identifiable information about the victims – such as name, location, age, phone number and Facebook profile – in order to enable their extortion.
In parallel, Bollaert also operated the website changemyreputation.com which charged revenge porn victims £235 to remove the content. The court heard that he had earned £20,000 from the scheme.
The case has set a precedent for cyber-exploitation in the US. Judge Gill said the ruling “makes clear there will be severe consequences for those that profit from the exploitation of victims online”.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service in October suggested a revenge porn maximum sentence of 14 years.