Member

It is not difficult to envisage cases where a sentencing magistrate or judge should have the option of imposing a sentence of imprisonment for creating a purported intimate image of the victim. Suppose that the defendant has committed this crime on an industrial scale, with hundreds of victims. Suppose that the defendant had a previous relationship with the victim, which she has ended. Perhaps she declined to enter into a relationship with the defendant, and he has decided to punish and humiliate her as an act of revenge by using an innocent photograph that he has of her to create the purported intimate image, knowing that she has a particular mental vulnerability and that his conduct will lead to her having a mental breakdown when she learns that the purported intimate image of her is being seen by people in her community. Can the Government seriously maintain that, in a case such as that, the magistrate or the judge should be denied the option of imposing a sentence of imprisonment?