Man posted explicit images of former partner on Facebook

A STRABANE man who posted sexually explicit images of his ex-partner on Facebook has been sentenced to three months in prison.

Patrick Clinton (50), of Bracken Gate in the town, pleaded guilty to a charge of improper use of a public communications network and a single charge of disclosing a private sexual photograph of an individual at Strabane Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Sentencing the defendant, Deputy District Judge Sean O’Hare questioned why the case was heard before the Magistrates Court and not sent to a higher court.

The judge observed, “This is the most serious case of this nature I’ve seen in the Magistrates Court. This case shows the most egregious type of abusive behaviour, and it must be taken seriously.”

While taking into account Clinton’s clear record and guilty plea, the judge told the court that the case was at the ‘upper end’ of this type of offending.

“I believe the custody threshold has been met.

“The way you’ve acted is so unacceptable, I have no other choice but to send you to prison,” he said.

Appeal

A three-month jail term was imposed, but Clinton was later released on bail, pending an appeal against the sentence.

The court heard that Clinton posted an explicit image of his ex-partner on the online social network, Facebook, on January 29 of this year.

A Public Prosecution Service (PPS) representative told the court that the PSNI were alerted to the case by their counterparts in Scotland after a woman reported that she had seen a picture of herself posing in a sexual way posted to Facebook by her ex-partner, Patrick Clinton.

The PSNI were also given a number of social media messages from Clinton, which showed that he had contacted his ex-partner’s daughter on a number of occasions, threatening to post images of her mother on Facebook.

He also sent two sexually-explicit images of the injured party to her daughter.

The injured party’s daughter then sent a message to Clinton which was a screenshot of the legislation for revenge porn and he swore at her before posting the first image to Facebook.

The image remained on social media for a short time before it was removed.

At a police interview, Clinton admitted to posting the photos and said that he had done it due to being drunk.