A British Columbia woman has been awarded $5,000 in damages after a man threatened to publish sexually explicit photos of her that he had obtained without her consent.
Byron Sowinski recovered the photos on February 24, 2024, during an evening with the victim and a mutual friend. At one point in the evening, Mr. Sowinski asked to use the victim’s phone to connect it to the television and play music, the police reported. Vancouver Sun.
He then accessed his iCloud storage and sent himself several images, according to the court report. These sexual images were taken by the victim herself in her bedroom between 2019 and 2023.
When she noticed the photos being sent, she called Mr. Sowinski who then apologized for taking the images without her consent, and then offered to send her similar photos in exchange.
Two days later he texted her and threatened to post the photos “all over social media” if she told anyone he had stolen them, the court heard.
Mr. Sowinski was ordered to pay $5,000 in damages, the maximum allowed for small claims in civil court, for “reprehensible and disgusting conduct,” the judge ruled.
The award is one of a handful of cases heard by the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal since the Intimate Images Protection Act was passed five months ago, allowing victims to recover damages for “revenge pornography.”
