BRANDON — A Brandon businessman has been found guilty of making intimate videos of his ex-fiancée publicly available on a porn site without her consent.
Provincial court Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta released the verdict Wednesday in the case of the 35 year old, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity.
He had pleaded not guilty; his lawyer argued the videos were uploaded for safekeeping and for his personal use.
During the trial last year, the Crown called three witnesses, including the victim, who testified she was notified that intimate videos of her and her former partner had been posted on Pornhub after she was sent a link to Pornhub by her former partner on Aug. 20, 2020.
The complainant testified she did not know that the Pornhub account with the videos existed. She did say she had consented to the filming of some of the intimate activities depicted in the videos.
Two police officers also testified about their knowledge of the Pornhub platform and how the videos were connected to an email account with the accused’s name.
The profile was listed as having seven subscribers and 18 friends, one officer testified.
The defence did not call any witnesses.
Hewitt-Michta said Wednesday the Crown could have provided “more and better evidence about Pornhub generally” during the trial.
Crown attorneys Rich Lonstrup and Yaso Mathu presented evidence about “friends” and “subscribers” on Pornhub and argued that by uploading intimate images to Pornhub, the man made those images available to the public.
After the Crown finished calling evidence, defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn raised a motion of no evidence, arguing the Crown had failed to present evidence that proved the videos were available to the public.
Hewitt-Michta dismissed the application.
During his closing argument, Synyshyn said the man uploaded the video to Pornhub for his own use.
The judge didn’t buy it.
“Uploading imagery to a website that aims to facilitate users sharing pornographic videos for safekeeping and personal use only stretches the imagination,” she said.
The judge took issue with the analogy used by Synyshyn in which likened the situation to someone who is allowed to have access to and to view the Mona Lisa, an original item of value, and being able to decide where to store it.
“One of the shortcomings of that analogy is that it was wholly focused on the interests of the accused as the possessor of the property — in this case, the videos — while overlooking completely the proprietary and even more importantly the privacy interest of the complainant in such deeply and personal images of herself,” Hewitt-Michta said.
The defence has asked that a pre-sentence report be ordered.
The matter will return to court on May 7 when a date for sentencing will be decided.
— Brandon Sun