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June 02, 2024 - 7:00 AM
A BC woman has lost a legal case against her former partner who she accused of sharing nude photos of her he took while giving her a massage.
In only the second case in the province's new Intimate Images Protection Act, the Tribunal found the woman hadn't proven that the images were shared or that her former partner threatened to share them.
Early this year, the province passed new laws enabling victims who have had intimate images shared to use the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal to get images taken down and for victims to claim up to $5,000 compensation. The Act also allows the Tribunal to order internet companies to remove images.
The move aimed to streamline justice, on top of existing criminal and civil legal options, allowing victims to file complaints online in the same way the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal deals with small claims court hearings and strata disputes.
In the Tribunal's first case in April, an individual was ordered to pay a victim $5,000 after being found to have shared intimate images which had been shared a couple of years earlier while the two who'd never met had had a "flirtatious" chat on Twitter.
In the recent case, the couple were living together and had at least one child together.
The May 29 BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision said that sometime between June 2023 and February 2024, AB (all names are initialized in the decision) took five videos and 16 photos of his partner when he was giving her a massage and she was in the nude. He took the videos and photos without her consent the decision says.
AB accused her partner of sharing the images with "at least" one co-coworker and one friend. She also said the image was shared to their child's iPad through the cloud.
He admitted to taking the images without her consent but said he deleted them the day he took them when she found out. He denied sharing them with anyone.
AB said her partner shared the images on WhatsApp but provided the Tribunal with no screenshots or other evidence of this.
She submitted a written statement from a close friend outlining that her partner "treats women badly" and that he once sent a threatening text to a former girlfriend.
However, the Tribunal said none of the evidence presented showed that AB's former partner shared intimate images.
AB also said the images were shared through "the cloud." She presented a photo of an iPhone with images of her on the screen.
But the Tribunal ruled there's no explanation of whose phone it was and that the photos appear in the Notes app and there was no explanation of why this was.
The Tribunal rejected further evidence submitted by AB in the form of letters from several medical, care and support providers. The Tribunal said while the letters show AB got support, none of the letters said her former partner shared or threatened to share intimate images of her.
Ultimately, the Tribunal ruled that she had failed to prove that her former partner either threatened to share the images or shared the images and dismissed the case.
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