Brandon man convicted for posting intimate videos of ex on porn site

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This article was published 11/04/2024 (760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon businessman was found guilty of making intimate videos of his ex-fiancée publicly available on a porn site without her consent.

In a written decision, Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta found the man guilty in provincial court on Wednesday. Closing arguments in the trial concluded in February.

A court-imposed publication ban intended to protect the identity of the victim also prevents the Sun from naming the man. The 35-year-old pleaded not guilty to making available an intimate video recording of his ex-fiancée.

The trial began last July but was paused for the judge to make a decision when the defence brought a no-evidence motion forward.

The accused and his ex-fiancée made consensual intimate videos during their previous romantic relationship. The woman became aware that the accused had posted the videos to Pornhub without her knowledge or consent in August 2020, when he texted her a link to the Pornhub website.

Reading her decision on Wednesday, Hewitt-Michta said that at the trial 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 through two Brandon police officers 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 brought a motion of no evidence, arguing that the Crown had failed to present any evidence that proved the videos were made available to the public.

Hewitt-Michta dismissed the application and during closing arguments, Synyshyn said the man uploaded the video to Pornhub for safekeeping and for his personal enjoyment.

“Uploading imagery to a website that aims to facilitate users sharing pornographic videos for safekeeping and personal use only stretches the imagination,” the judge said.

In her decision, the judge took issue with an analogy used by Synyshyn 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.

After the judge found the man guilty, defence asked that a pre-sentence report be ordered. The matter will return to court on May 7 when a date for the man’s sentencing will be decided.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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