A Perth married father of two who sent his lover's family sexually explicit photos and videos of her and uploaded them onto a pornographic website has been sentenced to 20 months' jail.
Armandeep Singh, 36, pleaded guilty to the "revenge porn" charge and today became the first person in WA to be dealt with by the District Court for the offence.
Commonwealth Prosecutor Tahlia Zerafa said Singh first met the victim, who was an overseas-based flight attendant, in February 2016 while working as an immigration detention guard and accompanying a detainee who was being deported.
Singh told the woman he was not married and the two then commenced a sexual relationship.
Two years later Singh's wife found out about the affair, but the court heard he led her to believe he had ended the relationship while also leading the victim to believe he was going to leave his wife.
In December 2019, both women found out what was happening and over the next two weeks Singh bombarded the victim with hundreds of threatening and abusive messages, including one that said:
"I want to abuse you, I will ruin you", and "I will break you".
Singh uploaded video to 'Porn Hub'
Ms Zerafa said Singh then sent a sexually explicit video of the woman to her brother, and screenshots from it to her father, both of whom lived in India.
He uploaded the video to a website called "Porn Hub" along with her personal details, including her full name, where she worked and pictures of her family.
The court heard he also sent screenshots from the video to her employer, filed an online complaint accusing her of "prostituting herself" and arranging for her colleagues to have sex with customers.
The woman reported the matter to the Australian Federal Police and Singh was arrested at his Byford home.
His lawyer Terry Dobson said while there was no excuse for what his client had done, he had lost control when their relationship broke down.
Mr Dobson said Singh was ashamed of his actions and had since sought counselling to try to get an insight into "how this rage could have overcome him".
The court heard while Singh was now separated from his wife and they intended to divorce, she was supportive of him and had provided a reference to the court.
Offences 'planned and vicious': Judge
Judge Mark Herron described Singh's conduct as "a form of domestic violence" and "bullying", saying it was "designed to cause distress and humiliation to the victim and her family as well as to punish her".
Judge Herron described the offending as "planned and vicious" as well as "persistent, menacing and harassing and "a breach of trust".
He said only a term of immediate imprisonment was justified and he sentenced Singh to 20 months' jail.
He will have to serve half the term before he can be released.
While it is the first time a District Court judge has dealt with the offence of "revenge porn", other cases, under state law have been before the Magistrates Court.
