More than four years after her ex-boyfriend uploaded several nonconsensual pornographic videos of her online, YouTuber Chrissy Chambers has won her civil revenge porn case against him, becoming the first person in the United Kingdom to do so.
According to the BBC, Chambers, who runs a YouTube channel with her fiancee Bria Kim, discovered in June 2013 that an ex-boyfriend had uploaded six videos of him and Chambers having sex to a free porn website. While the videos were taken in September 2009, when Chambers was 18, they were uploaded between December 2009 and January 2012.
While the videos were taken in Georgia, where Chambers lives in the U.S., they were under U.K. jurisdiction for being uploaded in the country. After being unable to pursue criminal charges (because the U.K.’s 2015 revenge porn law doesn’t apply retroactively), Chambers filed a civil suit against the ex-boyfriend.
Speaking to the BBC, Chambers, now 26, says the videos have given her post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and night terrors.
On Wednesday, the High Court in London heard the ex-boyfriend, who isn’t being named for legal reasons, had accepted liability for the activity and agreed to pay an undisclosed amount in addition to covering Chambers’ legal fees. She’s also been given copyright to the videos, which allows her to file takedown notices should the videos be redistributed.
On the court steps, Chambers got down on one knee in celebration, and proposed to her then-girlfriend, Kim. The YouTube duo are now engaged.
“I would say to other victims who maybe don’t have the confidence and don’t know what to do about pursuing it, that I know exactly how you feel,” Chambers told the BBC. “Justice can be served. I finally learned that there was a light at the end of my tunnel. Don’t give up hope. Even if it takes years you can get justice and you didn’t deserve to have this happen to you.”
H/T CNet
