Martin Nguyen threatened to "ruin" his ex-girlfriend by posting videos of them having sex online as well as sending them directly to her parents the day after they broke up.
The 30-year-old on Wednesday faced the Victorian County Court, where he was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order after pleading guilty to one count of blackmail.
Nguyen in April last year demanded the woman pay him $1250 and return a camera box and apartment key, as well as a pair of earrings and a Louis Vuitton handbag he bought her.
Otherwise he would "leak" videos of them having sex, which she thought he had deleted off his phone.
"Lmk [let me know] how soon you can organise this before I ruin your career here with some cute videos," Nguyen messaged her.
"I'll show you (what) it's like when I don't f***ing love you. I want my belongings back tonight or I'll leak.
"Once the videos leak it will be more challenging for you to ever probably climb your way up ... It will forever be on the internet."
Nguyen later threatened to send the sexual recordings to the woman's parents but she reported him to police and he was arrested that night.
The 30-year-old said he was never actually going to post the videos and claimed to have used cocaine after they broke up.
"So the reason I did what I did was I felt that was the only way I could get her attention just to talk to me," Nguyen told police.
Judge Angela Ellis said the recordings were captured in the context of an intimate relationship and that his threats to post them online constituted a "gross breach of trust".
"(The woman) was entitled to believe that they would be kept private and not to be used as a threat once the relationship turned sour," Judge Ellis said.
"To have a partner with whom she had very recently ceased a relationship threaten to publicly expose video material of the two of you engaged in sexual activity, particularly to her parents, must have been incredibly frightening and upsetting."
The court was also told Nguyen had been controlling during the relationship and would yell at her if she went out with friends.
But Judge Ellis said he had shown a level of remorse by pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.
"You have had to explain to friends and associates what you have done and you have accepted responsibility for your behaviour," she said.
"Your feelings of insecurity and jealousy within relationships will need to be managed by you. You will need to keep your emotions and fear of abandonment in check."
Nguyen must complete 200 hours of unpaid community work and submit to testing and treatment for drug and alcohol use.
