Spurned teen who posted indecent images of a 15-year old on Facebook after she refused to be his girlfriend avoids prison sentence
19-year-old Brandon Hesketh uploaded five 'revenge porn' pictures of the schoolgirl to the social media site, saying 'let's humiliate her'
A SPURNED teenager who posted “revenge porn” pictures of a schoolgirl on Facebook saying “Let’s humiliate her” has walked free from court.
Brandon Hesketh, 19, had been sent more than 100 images by the 15-year-old girl on a “for your eyes only” basis.
But when she refused to be his girlfriend, he posted five of the images on her Facebook profile page.
The pictures were spotted by a shocked family friend, who immediately informed the schoolgirl’s mum.
Hesketh, then 18, was arrested on June 12 and police found 139 indecent images of the youngster on his mobile phone, Preston Crown Court heard.
The teen, from Ribbleton, Lancashire, admitted charges of disclosing a private sexual photograph or film without the consent of the girl.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing prohibited images of a child, possessing indecent images of the girl with a view to them being distributed and making indecent images of a child.
Judge Pamela Badley, sentencing, said: “You knew how vulnerable she was, as you deliberately set out to hurt her.
“She was foolish enough to trust you with intimate pictures of herself on the basis that they were for your eyes only and that no copies would be kept.
“You immediately smashed her trust by retaining these images and then, when she couldn’t stand your behaviour towards her, you acted in revenge by uploading the photographs with the intention of humiliating her.
“Although you yourself do not have paedophilic tendencies, you were feeding into the tendencies of those people by deliberately, and behind her back, putting those photographs on her Facebook page.”
Reading the girl’s victim impact statement, Hanifa Patel, prosecuting, said: "She has lost trust and that is not surprising, given the fact she has been betrayed.
"She is devastated by what happened."
He was handed a four month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, and must carry out 55 days rehabilitation and has been placed on the sex offenders register for five years.
Judge Badley added: “He behaved as if this was a school prank in the playground.
“Now he is a sex offender he will perhaps understand the gravity of what he has done.”
After sentencing on August 24, Hesketh later blamed his actions on suffering from depression and severe anxiety.
He told The Sun: “The reason I didn’t go to prison was because it… didn’t happen ‘for the fun of it’.
“It happened because of mental issues that had gone undiagnosed at the time as well as well as finding out that the girl in question had cheated on me.”