Threatening to share revenge porn now carries jail sentence
Threatening to publish sexual or intimate images will become an offence carrying a sentence of up to two years in jail, the Government will announce on Monday.
Ministers have acted after warnings that the threats were being increasingly used as a form of domestic abuse for which the perpetrators escaped any punishment.
The legal change will be introduced on Monday in Parliament as one of a raft of amendments to the Government's domestic abuse bill.
They will also extend the law criminalising coercive or controlling behaviour to cover separated couples who no longer live together but where one partner subjects another to such actions.
As revealed by The Telegraph, non-fatal strangulation - where an abuser strangles or restricts a victim's breathing to control or intimidate them - will become a specific criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, said the bill provided a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to protect domestic abuse victims. "From outlawing non-fatal strangulation to giving better protections in court, we are delivering the support victims need to feel safer while ensuring perpetrators face justice for the torment they have inflicted," he said.
Threatening to publish intimate images extends current "revenge porn" laws, under which 900 people have already been prosecuted for sharing sexual pictures.
Prosecutors will have to show that the threat was made with the intent to cause distress under the new offence, which was urged in a campaign backed by former Cabinet minister Baroness Morgan, the charity Refuge and celebrities including Olivia Colman and Zara McDermott.
"I know from my time in [the Culture Department] just how technology has been used not only for good but also as a tool of abuse," said Baroness Morgan. "This simple law change can help transform the response to domestic abuse across the country and better protect women and girls."
Refuge surveys suggest one in seven women has been a victim of such threats.
Natasha Saunders, a survivor of domestic abuse, said:‘My perpetrator threatened to share my intimate images with friends and family. He did so to attempt to further control and abuse me.
“I was terrified of the consequences and it had a huge impact on me. I am now free from my abuser but every day I know that there are millions of women experiencing the things I was forced to endure for so long.”
The domestic abuse bill which enters its report stage this week, with Royal Assent expected in the Spring.
Some £15 million will double the amount being spent on programmes to work with perpetrators – designed to stop abuse from happening in the first place.
A further £4 million will help more vulnerable homeless women access specialist support in ‘Respite Rooms’ – providing up to 132 new bed spaces for around 1,100 homeless and extremely vulnerable women a year across London and nine other areas in England.
The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the challenges of domestic abuse – with a 65 per cent increase in calls to the National Domestic Abuse hotline over the first lockdown last year.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “For many domestic abuse victims, the pandemic has worsened the nightmares they go through day-in day-out, with many left trapped and with nowhere to go.
“So it’s right that we’re providing this new funding now – and pioneering new ways to help people – to ensure we respond to the sadly increased demand for support.”
