Man jailed for abusing ex-lover on Facebook
SOME angry men choose to post pictures of their ex-girlfriends to get back at them after a nasty break-up.
But a New Zealand man has the distinction of being the first to be jailed for posting a photo of his naked ex-girlfriend for millions of Facebook users to see.
Joshua Simon Ashby, 20, was sentenced to four months in jail on Friday in Wellington District Court, reported New Zealand's The Dominion Post.
After the break-up of his five-month relationship with his girlfriend who was not named, he posted the photo after an "irresponsible drunken rage", said the judge.
The photo of the woman, standing naked in front of a mirror, was posted on her Facebook profile which he had illegally accessed.
The Facebook profile was visible to her 218 friends, but Ashby made it publicly accessible so all 500 million Facebook users could view it. He also changed her password so she couldn't access it.
His girlfriend's friends sent her an SMS to inform her of what had happened.
Facebook blocked public access to her profile only 12 hours later.
Ashby also sent text messages including threats such as "I'm going to kill you" and "dead b****" to her on July 23.
Ashby is believed to be the first person to be sentenced for a crime committed using social media under the seldom-used morality and decency section of New Zealand's Crimes Act.
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Judge Andrew Becroft said he was adapting an old print law for the Internet age.
"Technology can't be used in this way," he warned.
"You would do incalculable damage to someone's reputation."
As he committed his Facebook attack, Ashby also stole two of the woman's dresses and soaked them in water before cutting them up.
The couple briefly reunited after she forgave him, but they broke up again during a drunken argument in October.
He shoved her to the ground and broke her cellphone in half.
Referring to Ashby's act of publishing his girlfriend's naked photo on Facebook, Judge Becroft told Ashby that the victim felt degraded.
