A DISTRICT Court Judge has hit out at the practice of people sharing images on social media platforms without the prior knowledge or consent of the person involved.

Judge Éiteáin Cunningham was commenting on a case in which a woman had shared a naked image of her former partner on her Snapchat account.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged that she published an image of another person without that person’s prior consent. The incident occurred in April 2021.

Outlining the case at Letterkenny District Court on Monday, Sergeant Jim Collins said a man had contacted Gardai to inform them that a naked image of him had been posted on the defendant’s Snapchat page.

Gardai had met up with the complainant and taken a statement. They had also taken screenshots of the image.

When interviewed by Gardai, the woman made a number of allegations, claiming the man had put her and her family through tough times.

Defending solicitor, Donagh Cleary told the court the man had set up a Tinder account and the image represented his profile picture on the platform. Defendant had received the image from other people.

Judge Cunningham said that nobody should be sharing anything on such platforms without their prior knowledge and consent.

“It’s not acceptable in any shape or form irrespective of whether you receive it from someone else.”

Mr Cleary pointed out that the offence had become a crime two months before the incident in question. His client and her family had been the victim of some “unpleasant behaviour”.

“She is not proud of what happened but it was in the context of things that were going on.”

Describing it as a serious offence, Judge Cunningham said that people were entitled to their rights of privacy.

She noted that there were “certain issues” ongoing at the time and the injured party had declined to make a victim impact statement.

After learning that the defendant had no previous convictions, Judge Cunningham said she would apply the Probation of Offenders Act on this occasion.