Not only can taking intimate photographs or videos of someone without their permission lead to a prosecution in the criminal courts, but it is also possible for victims to claim compensation through the civil courts.
Taking photographs or videos of someone without their knowledge and agreement can amount to the crime of voyeurism. This by itself can lead to a criminal conviction for the perpetrator, potentially resulting in a prison sentence and the requirement to register as a sex offender for several years.
However, it is now possible for victims to also claim compensation for offences like voyeurism and revenge porn through the civil courts.
With laws becoming much stricter regarding sexual and online offences, and with more victims able to claim compensation, here’s what everyone should know.
Voyeurism and revenge porn laws
Under UK law, the criminal offence of voyeurism involves observing and/or recording another person engaged in a private act, without the person’s consent, for their own sexual gratification or to cause the victim alarm or humiliation – including the installation or operation of equipment for this purpose.
This is covered by Section 67 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and expanded by the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 and the Online Safety Act 2023.
These laws also criminalise ‘upskirting’ and ‘downblousing’ – taking images up or down someone’s clothing of their chest, bottom, or genitals – and make it illegal to take or share such non-consensual images regardless of intent.
Revenge porn is a type of intimate image abuse that involves taking and publishing nude or sexual images of another person without their consent, typically with the intention of humiliating the person in the photos or videos and causing them distress.
The images may be taken without the victim’s knowledge or consent in an act of voyeurism, or taken consensually but then shared non-consensually.
As an example of this image-based sexual abuse, the perpetrator may want to get ‘revenge’ on an ex-partner after an unpleasant breakup, so they might decide to publicly share private photographs sent by the victim while they were dating.
It is also an offence to threaten to disclose intimate images of someone with the intention of causing them distress, even if the offender does not follow through with it.
Is revenge porn sexual assault?
In the first case of its type, reported in February 2023, a victim was awarded almost £100,000 after images of her naked body were uploaded to a pornographic website.
The covert images taken by the defendant were of his then girlfriend showering and cleaning the bathroom naked. While other images showed her in bed topless, there were no images involving any sexual activity.
However, the court ruled that taking an intimate photograph or video of someone without their knowledge and sharing such images – showing the victim naked, even without any sexual activity – can, in law, amount to sexual assault and sexual abuse.
Consequently, compensation can be awarded for any psychiatric or psychological damage resulting from the non-consensual taking and publishing of the photographs.
This, of course, has caused quite a stir – not only in legal circles, but also in the general media. It is now possible (in civil law) to commit sexual assault against someone by taking a photograph of their nude body and showing it to someone else, thereby causing distress to the person whose body was photographed.
There does not need to be any physical touching involved at all; nor does there need to be any sexual activity depicted.
At first sight, this appears to conflict with criminal law – in the present case, the defendant was convicted of voyeurism in the criminal courts, not sexual assault.
However, as a result of this civil case, it now appears possible that someone could be convicted in the criminal courts of not only voyeurism, but also sexual assault and sexual abuse, as a result of sharing an intimate photograph causing distress.
Voyeurism and sexual assault sentencing
If a person is found guilty of voyeurism or intimate image abuse, they can be fined and receive a prison sentence of up to 6 months for the basic offence, or up to 2 years if it can also be proven that the perpetrator committed the offence with the intention of humiliating or causing distress to the victim or obtaining sexual gratification.
Many defendants manage to avoid prison, as in the aforementioned case – the defendant received a 2-year suspended sentence and has to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
However, sexual assault offences can carry sentences of up to 10 years in prison. Subject to the length of the prison sentence, they can also come with a requirement to register as a sex offender for an indefinite period (potentially life).
It also appears that the courts may be willing to award increasing amounts of compensation.
Voyeurism and sexual assault compensation
In a previous case, a victim of rape was awarded £93,000 (in today’s figures) for pain and suffering. In the presently discussed case, the victim was awarded almost £100,000 because the distress caused by naked photographs of her being uploaded to a pornography website resulted in diagnoses of anxiety, depression, and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
In the earlier rape case, the victim was clearly the subject of a severe physical sexual assault. In the present case, the victim was not physically assaulted, but received more in compensation, with damages including psychiatric suffering and the cost of attempting to remove the intimate images of her from the internet.
It will therefore be interesting to see how far the courts go to determine a sexual assault.
If showing a person’s nude photograph to someone else and causing the person distress can amount to a sexual assault, it would appear to follow that writing about someone sexually, forwarding sexual messages, or forwarding intimate ‘selfies’ could all amount to sexual assault and sexual abuse as well.
What can victims claim compensation for?
In other cases over recent years, victims have claimed compensation for various breaches of their private lives. These include:
- Accessing someone’s voicemails
- Writing about sexual activity with someone
- Making secret recordings of intimate matters when in a romantic relationship
- Physical sexual assault, including rape
- Sexual texting (sexting)
- Sending indecent images
Even when someone takes intimate photographs of themselves (such as nude ‘selfies’) and sends them to another person with the knowledge that the images will be used for sexual gratification, it can not only amount to a criminal offence for the recipient to show them to someone else, but can also result in substantial compensation being awarded to the victim against the person receiving and distributing the images.
To claim compensation in the present case, the victim had to show that the defendant:
- Intentionally exposed the victim to a foreseeable risk of severe distress, resulting in injury
- Infringed on the victim's privacy
- Breached the victim’s confidence (misusing private information)
Posting an intimate or nude photograph of someone knowing it is likely to cause them distress obviously infringes on their privacy and is a misuse of their private information.
Causing distress, alarm, and humiliation is largely the whole reason why people post ‘revenge porn’ pictures and videos, but the severe distress must also cause injury for the victim to be able to claim compensation through a civil case.
So, how easy is it for the victim to show an injury? Easier than you might think.
What counts as an injury caused by distress?
Proving injury resulting from distress caused by intimate image abuse or sexual assault is where expert witnesses come into the equation.
In the current case, the victim obtained an expert report from a specialist psychiatrist via solicitors. Such a report is based not only on the victim’s medical history, but also on what the victim tells the expert during the consultation.
Such an injury showing how badly they have been affected by the intimate image abuse may be evidenced via the following examples:
- Sleepless nights
- Nightmares
- Emotional breakdowns
- Mental stress
- Being prescribed medication
- Having to report it to the police
- Going through a criminal court case (as the victim)
- Relationship breakdown
- Losing trust in others
- Financial losses
- Seeing a therapist or counsellor
- Suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Chronic PTSD over several years leading to an enduring personality change
- Ongoing stress due to publication of images
- Ongoing psychiatric treatment
- Becoming a recluse
- Inability to work
- Inability to leave the house
- Paranoia
- Removing oneself from social media
- Difficulty entering any new relationship
- Inability to make friends
- Relapse of any existing mental health condition attributable to the events in question.
The court may also award ‘special damages’ for ongoing treatments costs, medical expenses, therapy costs, loss of employment, loss of residence, hotel accommodation, etc.
Additionally, the court may award compensation to pay a private company to try to find the offending images on the internet and remove them. This can be an ongoing process, as such images may initially be posted to one site, but then copied by others onto multiple sites.
In the specified case, the special damages amounted to over £37,000, which the perpetrator must pay to the victim on top of £60,000 in general damages (including ‘pain, suffering, and lack of amenity’).
What to do if you are accused of revenge porn
So, what should you do if you are accused of taking and/or sharing intimate photographs of another person without their consent?
Firstly, seek advice from a specialist firm of solicitors, who will be able to help defend your position in any criminal proceedings, and help you try to avoid a claim for compensation.
At PCD Solicitors, we are specialists who only deal with sexual defence work, representing clients throughout England and Wales.
We never charge for our initial advice, and if we are instructed by you, we can often undertake all our work on a fixed fee – meaning you will know at the outset what the cost will be, irrespective of how long it takes to resolve your case.
As leading sexual defence solicitors, we have a fine-tuned comprehensive process – meeting with a new client and obtaining all the relevant information as soon as possible, and liaising with the police and CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) from the outset.
For a free initial consultation regarding voyeurism, intimate image abuse, or sexual assault accusations or prosecutions, please contact our office by calling 0151 705 8488 or emailing info@pcdsolicitors.co.uk.
You can also contact our senior solicitor, Marcus Johnstone, directly by emailing a summary of your concerns to marcus@pcdsolicitors.co.uk or texting 07808 553 555.