A teenager has been ordered to pay a woman compensation after hacking into her Snapchat and sending a sexual video of her to others.
Keiron Gerrie used the woman’s username and password to gain access to the image-sharing social media account and sent a video of her in her underwear to two men.
The 19-year-old also sent sexual messages to one of the men, pretending to be the woman, and tried to persuade him to send indecent images back.
Gerrie was rumbled when the woman logged back into Snapchat and noticed her location on the app’s map feature had been showing as his address.
Crown narrative
Fiscal depute Janet MacDonald told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “On January 18 2020 the complainer was at a house party with friends. The accused was also present.
“The complainer went upstairs to a bedroom. The accused entered the bedroom and closed the door behind him.”
The woman asked to be left alone, but Gerrie stood between her and the door, preventing her from leaving.
Gerrie then “wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug” before she managed to “wriggle free” and left.
Between January 18 and 31 last year the pair had some conversations over social media before the woman “cut all contact with the accused and blocked him”.
Ms MacDonald said: “On February 1 the complainer checked her mobile and attempted to use Snapchat but noticed she’d been logged out.
“Concerned someone had accessed her account, she changed her password and opened the application.
“She could see a message had been sent from her account to another male.
“She observed a video of herself in her underwear that had been sent to this other male.
“The male had not opened the message and the complainer was able to delete it prior to it being opened.
“She opened the map feature and could see her account had been showing at the home address of the accused.”
The woman was also approached by another man who said he had been sent the same picture, and that he’d been conversing with the account and initially thought it was her.
Ms MacDonald said “requests for sexual images” had been made but that the man had “suspicions he was not conversing with the complainer” and did not comply.
The woman reported the matter to police.
The charges
Gerrie pled guilty to following the woman into a bedroom, preventing her from leaving, seizing her by the body, repeatedly logging into her Snapchat and impersonating her.
He also admitted sending a video of the woman in her underwear to two men, and repeatedly sending one of the men Snapchat messages containing sexual remarks.
Mitigation
Defence agent Ross Taggart said his client had “no explanation” for his actions.
He added: “He accepts it’s a horrible thing to do and he does regret his behaviour.
“He does realise the harm it would have caused, but he can’t take that back.”
The sentence
Sheriff Margaret Hodge described the offences as “despicable conduct”, adding: “It seems to me a relatively high level of fine is appropriate.
She ordered Gerrie, of Dalrymple Circle, Blackburn, to pay a fine totalling £860, and also imposed a £250 compensation order.
The sheriff further imposed a one-year non-harassment order.
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