Jilted woman appeals conviction, sentence for sending video of sex act with ex
A woman has appealed a conviction for sending her ex-boyfriend’s new love interest an intimate video of them engaged in a sexual act, telling police the new woman might “be into it”.
Central Coast
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An aspiring childcare worker who sent her ex-boyfriend’s new love interest a video of them engaged in a sexual act has appealed her convictions on the grounds she was mentally ill at the time.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted in Wyong Local Court earlier this year for distributing an intimate image without consent and using a carriage service to menace or offend.
The 27 year old was sentenced to a conditional release order for seven months and ordered to pay $100 surety.
The woman appealed the convictions and severity of the sentence when she faced Gosford District Court last week.
An agreed set of facts states the woman was in a relationship with a man for about a year in which they would “consent to the recording of performing sexual acts on each other or together”.
The facts state the relationship ended about midway through last year but the pair continued to communicate and at times engaged in “episodes of intimacy”.
The court heard on December 10 last year her ex recorded such an episode on the woman’s own mobile phone.
Some time later the woman became aware her ex had abruptly ended sexual contact with her and was entering a new relationship with another woman.
She sent him the video with the message “Does she suck you like this?” to which he responded the next day “don’t send messages like that I’m not interested”.
The court heard on January 12 the woman sent the same video to her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend via Facebook.
The court heard when the woman was arrested she told police she sent the video to the new woman because she assumed she might “be into it”.
But later she confessed to a psychologist she hoped the video would encourage the new woman to break up with her ex-boyfriend so that it might “induce him to resume his relationship with her”.
The District Court heard the sole ground for appeal was the woman should be diverted into the mental health system because she was impaired at the time.
Her solicitor tended a psychologist’s report that found, in the author’s professional opinion, his client was suffering from a mental health impairment at the time but was not a “mentally ill or disordered person”.
The prosecutor argued the report did not “make a diagnosis” and that the Crown would not oppose an adjournment for the woman to get such a diagnosis from a psychiatrist.
Judge Alister Abadee said while he recognised the “thoroughness” of the report he said the author himself found that “a psychiatrist’s view should be obtained to confirm his own provisional diagnosis”.
Judge Abadee ruled that while the woman was not suffering from a mental impairment at the time she did have good prospects of rehabilitation, there were some extenuating circumstances and that a conviction would have “deleterious consequences” on her career and educational aspirations in working with children.
He upheld the severity appeal and found her guilty of both offences but proceeded without conviction.
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