A town mayor is facing up to 100 years behind bars and a quarter of a million dollar fine for sharing so-called revenge porn of an ex-girlfriend.
Andrew Bradshaw, mayor of Cambridge, in the United States, is facing charges that he posted explicit pictures of his ex on Reddit.
If convicted, Mr Bradshaw would face a maximum of two years and a $5,000 (£3,718) fine for each count.
As he is facing 50 counts, this means he could face up to 100 years in prison and a fine up to a quarter of a million dollars.
The pictures included naked images and often the victim’s name and other identifiable information.
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They were posted on subreddits that had names like “HumiliatingComments”, “DegradeThisPig”, “DegradedCaptions”, “Slut”, and “needysluts”.
According to legal documents, photographs of VICTIM-1, as she was named, were posted in the subreddit “raceplay”.
The case is being brought by the Office of the State Prosecutor which claims that Bradshaw created “multiple accounts”.
The documents claimed that Bradshaw distributed the photos in dozens of posts between April and May this year.
The alarm was only raised when the woman herself spotted the images online.
She told police Bradshaw was the only person who she had ever shared the photos with and that she hadn’t given him permission to distribute.
The document alleges that most of the images were captioned with sexually degrading and humiliating comments that included worrying personal details.
It alleges some of those captions included things like “The kind of white girl [redacted] love to nut on”, and “The kind of body black men love”.
Others were more explicit.
An investigation was launched and the alleged IP address where the photos were uploaded from a property owned by Bradshaw in the area.
State Prosecutor Charlton T. Howard said: “Using someone’s private images without their consent is a serious breach of trust and invasion of privacy, and the power and breadth of the internet makes such a violation even more egregious.
“Our office is committed to protecting victims from those who abuse their positions of power and trust.”
That means Bradshaw could face up to 100 years behind bars if he is convicted at a later date and fined up to a quarter of a million dollars.
Bradshaw took office in January of this year and according to his online bio, he is the youngest mayor ever elected in the history of Cambridge.
