South Yorkshire man posted revenge porn “just to be an a*******”

Richard Hirst shared the image with two other people and also posted it on his Facebook page for a short time, on September 13, last year, said prosecutor Ian Goldsack.

He asked if anyone wanted copies and posted her Snapchat address with the caption: "Get adding lads."

The court heard that his previous messages to her on Snapchat turned threatening:

"I'll rip your fat f****** face off," one read. "I'll put a knife in your neck you fat scumbag. I am coming now."

Hirst smashed her bedroom window at 1.45am, on October 14, after he had been interviewed and bailed by police.

"I planned this just to be an a*******," he admitted in a later message and said it was "probably the biggest mistake of my life" and that he "hadn't meant to hurt anyone."

In a statement the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was left feeling “humiliated and degraded,” and as if “she didn't wish to wake up anymore.”

"I am terrified that people have taken screenshots and shared them with anyone," she said. "I am scared that friends, family and workmates will see it."

Amy Earnshaw, mitigating, said Hirst’s offending was a "spree" committed while he was grieving for his sister, who died three weeks before, and he was drinking alcohol to excess.

The messages were sent after he received abusive messages and threats from the woman, Ms Earnshaw said, and "he was upping the ante."

She said Hirst suffers from long-term anxiety and depression, with suicidal tendencies, and would be “extremely vulnerable” in prison.

Hirst, 29, of Eastfields, Worsbrough Bridge, Barnsley, pleaded guilty to disclosing a private image, malicious communications and criminal damage.

Recorder Craig Hassall told him: "It was clearly your intention to cause distress and humiliation to her," but noted there was a "degree of parity" in the maliciousness of the messages they sent each other.

The judge sentenced him to six months, suspended for 12 months, with 20 rehabilitation days, a three-month curfew from 8pm to 7.30am, and £150 compensation. A five-year restraining order was imposed.

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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