Queensland revenge porn victim Robyn Night wants more done to protect women just like her

FOR years, men turned up at Robyn’s door day, day and night, expecting sex. Why they were sent there, and who sent them, was disturbing.

ROBYN Night’s first experience with revenge porn happened via Facebook. She was at home when she received a message from a friend about a picture he’d found online.

On a website dedicated to filthy images was her face superimposed on another woman’s body. She was surrounded by naked men. Attached to the image were her name, her address and a picture of her home.

Terrified, Mrs Night, from Queensland, did what anybody would do in that situation. She went through a list in her head of all the people who might be motivated to hurt her. Then she phoned police.

What happened next was worse. Police told her they could do nothing. The fraud squad never called her back, she told news.com.au. It’s not surprising, she says, given Australia’s relaxed laws on the subject.

Then the knocks at the door began. One by one, dozens of men began visiting.

“Are you Robyn?” they would ask, immediately confused when she didn’t invite them inside like they’d been promised.

The men had been talking with Mrs Night for days, sometimes weeks. At least they thought they had been. In reality, they were talking to the person who posted her image online, a man she knew.

On chat sites, he was impersonating her. He was telling strangers to meet her at her home and often to not even bother knocking.

“‘Don’t even knock, just come in’ he would tell them. He would say: ‘She loves to be tortured and raped’.”

After four years without a positive response from police, Mrs Night said the last straw was a “gigantic, hairy man” asking for sex while standing on her doorstep, metres away from her three-month-old son.

Living a nightmare. Robyn Night has lived in fear for the past four years after a man created a fake profile to get back to her. Picture: Marc Robertson

“Men would turn up any time of the day or night,” she said.

“They were typically embarrassed. They would say to me they were here to fix my car or my computer.

“I was going to change my name, go off the grid. I was going to get off social media and not have any contact with family and friends. It would look like I had left my husband and son.”

The next day police rang to tell her they were executing a search warrant at the impersonator’s home.

There, it’s alleged they found information linking him to the websites featuring her doctored images and charged him with a number of offences including stalking. He is yet to face court and won’t face revenge porn charges because they don’t exist.

Mrs Night says she hopes that changes. Recently, she submitted details of her story to a Senate inquiry investigating revenge porn legislation. Her story was also told at a roundtable discussion with Australian Federal Police earlier this week, but she says even that was hindered by victim blaming.

“[They say] if you go out in the snow without clothes on you’ll catch a cold — if you go on to the computer without your clothes on, you’ll catch a virus,” Assistant Commissioner Shane Connelly reportedly told The Guardian.

Mrs Wright said that attitude failed victims.

“That’s victim shaming,” she said. “(Perpetrators) need to do jail time. I lived like a prisoner for four years. There needs to be more accountability ... It’s cyber rape. We need to catch up when it comes to cyber crimes.”

Online, Mrs Night has started a petition asking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to introduce revenge porn laws.

“The UK, USA, Canada and Japan have all introduced specific legislation to protect revenge porn victims — it’s time for Australia to urgently follow their lead,” she wrote.

The petition has been signed by more than 40,000 people. Mrs Night hopes change is just around the corner.