Pennington man sent video of his ex having sex to her mum after their children downloaded it from Amazon account

A PENNINGTON man who sent a video showing his ex-partner having sex to her mother has been spared a jail term.

The 50-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, made the “foolish” decision after his children unintentionally downloaded and viewed the video, Southampton Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Keely Harvey said the offender and his ex-girlfriend, the mother of their children, broke up in 2020 and she had found a new partner.

On Christmas Eve that year the children were staying with the defendant at his mother’s house when they began using their tablets to stream videos.

Ms Harvey said a video showing their mother having sex with her new partner - which she had recorded and backed up to her Amazon account - downloaded to her children’s tablets and began playing.

The defendant was “distraught” at viewing the video, which also appeared to show a “drug pipe” on the bed with the couple.

Ms Harvey said that, having viewed the video, the offender sent it to his ex-partner’s mother followed by a “string of text messages” complaining their children had viewed it and that it appeared to show drug paraphernalia. The defendant also said he would report the matter to social services.

“He also messaged his ex-partner about it,” said the prosecutor. “He said their children were distraught to have seen this. He also called her a slut and a tart and said she was disgusting.”

The court heard the defendant’s children could see that viewing the video had “hurt” their father and he was “crying all night” about it.

When asked about her children viewing the video, the woman said she felt “ashamed and horrible”, adding it was “not something she would want her children to see”.

When interviewed by the police, the defendant said he had not sent the video “out of spite”, but was angry about his ex-partner “smoking drugs”.

Ms Harvey noted the defendant had no previous convictions, but had been “reprimanded” in 2007 for a battery offence.

He pleaded guilty to disclosing private sexual films with intent to cause distress.

The court heard sending the video was “designed to cause stress and humiliation” to the victim.

Andrew Houston, mitigating, said the length of time his client had to wait for the “ridiculously stale” case to come before the court “beggars belief”.

Saying his client had acted in a “foolish way”, Mr Houston added: “He must have intended to cause some distress (by sending the video) but he probably didn’t think about that, he just responded in the heat of the moment.

“This behaviour was impulsive, foolish and a one-off.”

Mr Houston said his client had lost his job and access to his children since the case against him began. He also said there would be no need to place a restraining order on the defendant because he has “no wish to contact the victim”.

Recorder Don Tait told the defendant: “This demonstrates the dangers of the internet, doesn’t it?”

The defendant replied “yes”, before the judge continued: “There was quite obviously an intent to upset (the victim’s) parents when you realised what this video consisted of.

“You’ve lost a lot since then - you’ve lost contact with your kids, you’ve lost your employment. This was a moment of madness, quite honestly.”

The judge handed down a 12-month community order requiring the defendant to complete 120 hours of unpaid work.