Oz man jailed for posting nude pics of ex-girlfriend on Facebook

Sydney, Apr 22 (ANI): A jilted Australian lover, who put naked snaps of his ex girlfriend on Facebook, has been awarded six months in prison.

It is the first social networking-related conviction in Australian history and one of just a handful in the world.

"I put the photos up because she hurt me and it was the only thing [I had] to hurt her," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ravshan 'Ronnie' Usmanov as telling the police.

The six pictures, according to court documents, showed his former girlfriend "nude in certain positions and clearly showing her breasts and genitalia".

Soon after posting the pictures on his Facebook page in October last year, Usmanov emailed his girlfriend with the message: "Some of your photos are now on Facebook".

She had broken up with Usmanov and moved out of their shared home less than three months earlier.

The woman ran to Usmanov's flat at Pyrmont, asking him to take down the pictures. When he refused, she called the police.

Privacy experts have insisted that Usmanov's case has exposed the "tip of the iceberg" of online offences that rarely go punished.

Sentencing the 20-year-old, the Deputy-Chief Magistrate, Jane Mottley, asserted that she was "deterring both the offender and the community generally from committing similar crimes".

"New-age technology through Facebook gives instant access to the world. Facebook as a social networking site has limited boundaries. Incalculable damage can be done to a person's reputation by the irresponsible posting of information through that medium," she said.

"With its popularity and potential for real harm, there is a genuine need to ensure the use of this medium to commit offences of this type is deterred.

"The harm to the victim is not difficult to contemplate: embarrassment, humiliation and anxiety at not only the viewing of the images by persons who are known to her but also the prospect of viewing by those who are not. It can only be a matter for speculation as to who else may have seen the images, and whether those images have been stored in such a manner which, at a time the complainant least expects, they will again be available for viewing, circulation or distribution," she added. (ANI)