A Texas woman has been awarded over NZ$2 billion after a jury ruled that she was a victim of revenge porn.
The woman, who was only referred to by the ‘DL’ in all court documents, filed a lawsuit against her former boyfriend in 2022. The woman alleged the partner posted intimate pictures of her online to “publicly shame” her after a breakup.
Her lawyers said the settlement is a win for all victims hurt by image-based assault.
“While a judgment in this case is unlikely to be recovered, the compensatory verdict gives DL back her good name,” said Bradford Gilde, the lead trial lawyer, in a statement.
According to the BBC, her lawyers had originally only asked the jury for $167 million in damages.
“We hope the staggering amount of this verdict sends a message of deterrence and prevents others from engaging in this despicable activity,” Gilde added.
Court documents show that the woman and the former partner started their relationship in 2016, during which the women sent intimate photos of herself. They broke up in 2021 and he was then accused of posting the images on social media and explicit websites without her knowledge or consent.
He is alleged to have sent links of the photos to her friends and family through a Dropbox folder, which was publicly accessible. He was also accused of having access to her phone, social media accounts and emails.
The defendant allegedly sent the woman a message saying: “You will spend the rest of your life trying and failing to wipe yourself off the internet. Everyone you ever meet will hear the story and go looking. Happy Hunting.”
Lawyers for the woman claim her former partner posted the images to “inflict a combination of psychological abuse, domestic violence and sexual abuse”.
He did not show up in court but had an attorney present to represent him, according to US media reports.
He was ordered to pay upwards of $335 million in damaged for past and future mental anguish and a further $1.6 billion in exemplary damages.
This is not the first large settlement reached in the US for revenge porn, in 2018 a California woman was awarded $7.3 million after her former partner shared explicit images of her on pornographic websites.
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