Man fined €4,500 for revenge porn

A man from Pieta has been slapped with a heavy fine for circulating revenge porn featuring a former partner of his.

37-year-old John Ebejer was arraigned under arrest before magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech this morning, accused of circulating a video through an online instant messenger application, of his former partner performing a sex act on him. He was also charged with misuse of electronic communications equipment.

Inspector Oriana Spiteri, prosecuting, also requested a protection order for the alleged victim.

Defence counsel, lawyer Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri entered a guilty plea for the man, who told the court that he was unemployed.

The court officially drew the attention of the competent authorities to the fact, as pointed out by the defence, that there was a mistake in the translation of the article of the law under which the man was charged. The English translation of Section 208E of the criminal code punished the crime with “up to five years” imprisonment or a fine, whilst the Maltese version says just “five years” or a fine. The court also observed that it was bound to follow the Maltese version.

In this case, the court said, it would be applying the fine. The magistrate solicited the authorities to amend the law as necessary to address the inconsistency between the Maltese and English texts.

The court imposed a fine of €4,500 on Ebejer.