A young woman said she hopes "no other woman will go through this horrendous experience" after she was intimidated and harassed by a man she thought was her friend.
For three months from December 2021, the woman - who The ECHO has chosen not to name - received threatening and sexually explicit messages from a mystery contact who hacked her Snapchat account and downloaded private images of her in a state of undress.
The unknown contact demanded further naked pictures of her in exchange for deleting the ones he already had, offered her money in exchange for "more", and sent her unsolicited explicit images.
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In a statement read out at Sefton Magistrates Court, the victim said: "The conversation started with them sending me an image of myself partially naked. My heart dropped. I could not understand how this stranger had these private pictures of me, especially as these had never been sent to anyone. This disbelief quickly turned to panic, I then received more messages containing compliments, further pictures of myself and requests to send more pictures to this stranger. I pleaded with them to delete these images and asked how they had them - I was told they would only be deleted if more exposed images were sent.
"This series of incidents induced intense anxiety and worry, I felt embarrassed, disgusted and alone. I felt sick at the thought a stranger had somehow accessed private images of me. I felt violated, my privacy had been invaded and my body sexualised by a stranger.
"I was sent images of a penis on two separate occasions, from two different accounts, with vulgar and suggestive comments following these pictures. This made me feel like a sexual object, disgusting and degraded."
She said she felt "embarrassed and ashamed" and did not tell her family or fiancé about the messages, but approached a cyber crime charity which encouraged her to report what was happening to the police.
One week later, her "worst fears" were realised when the mystery man sent the naked pictures of her to her fiancé and asked him: "Do you know her?"
She said: "The next week involved sleepless nights and fear of what would happen next... I believed that my private images were now just free for anyone to look at. Every day I would worry who they would message next with my photos. The thought of the damage that these images could do to my career was unbearable."
A police investigation traced the harassment to Robert Leary, a 27-year-old trainee teacher and former paralegal.
Leary, of Moorside Road, Crosby, repeatedly accessed his victim's private account even after she changed her password. He pleaded guilty to computer misuse, harassment and sending indecent images, and was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months.
His victim said: "This series of incidents have been the worst time in my life. It has changed who I am. I now experience increased anxiety and worry that nothing I do will ever be private again. It has caused me to doubt my self worth as anything more than just a sexual object. Even the noise of the snapchat notification or logo on somebody else's device gives me an awful feeling in my stomach. I can only hope that no other woman will go through this horrendous experience."
Her mum, who attended the sentencing in Sefton on January 11, said: "She was scared she would lose her job, she was scared her private pictures were going to be shared around, she was scared of going out. She felt so alone and didn't know who to turn to. She didn't even feel able to tell me, and that was what made me so upset - that she's gone through all that alone. It absolutely devastates me and I'm broken-hearted. Just seeing what it's done to her, how she's suffered."
Her stepfather said: "I was so angry at him for violating my child. I was just so frustrated that I couldn't do something about it myself, which is not my character at all, but I was just so angry. She's our little girl, our baby. It was just devastating."
As well as his suspended sentence, Leary was given 25 rehabilitation days, 12 sessions with the mental health authority, and ordered to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work. He was also given a restraining order preventing him from contacting his victim or her fiance for three years.
Claire Roach, defending, said: "He has wracked his brain as to why he has come about committing these offences and every time he comes to the same conclusion - he has no explanation. At the time he was suffering from his mental health. He found himself in a very dark place and he's not only destroyed his own life but that of the complainant as well.
"He wants her to know how remorseful and ashamed and sorry he is."
A previous version of this article reported that Robert Leary had sent the victim unsolicited explicit images of himself. In fact, the CPS have confirmed that there was no evidence to suggest that the explicit images Leary sent to the victim were of him.
We are happy to clarify this and have amended the article accordingly.
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