A Sydney bartender who took photos from a series of women’s private social media accounts and shared them on a porn website has been jailed for nine years.
Andrew Thomas Hayler, 38, posted photos of close friends, colleagues and housemates and encouraged people to share fantasies about the victims, alongside his own desires to sexually assault the women.
Victims revealed the unnerving and disturbing impact of being told their images had been shared in this way, with many fearing for their safety after learning of the sickening threats on the forum.
Hayler also superimposed his victims’ faces over sexually explicit images and posted them to the same site.
He pleaded guilty to 28 counts of using a carriage service to threaten, harass and offend, telling the court his offense was an ‘outlet for a part of his psyche that he didn’t want’.
In addition to posting the images, Hayler also made comments such as “she’s a future rape victim,” “I’m closing in on this sl**,” “I know where she lives now,” and “let’s claim her as our own.”
Andrew Thomas Hayler, 38, posted photos of close friends, colleagues and roommates and encouraged people to share fantasies about the victims, alongside his own desires to sexually assault the women
The website had more than 300,000 followers.
The crime took place between 2020 and 2022 and there were 26 victims, only two of whom he did not know.
At an earlier hearing, Hayler said he published the women’s names because it gave him power, but he also thought his transgression was like “a tree falling in the forest.”
Judge Jane Culver on Friday rejected any idea that Hayler had not caused significant pain by his actions.
“The widespread degradation of women could not have been lost on the perpetrator,” she told Sydney’s Downing Center District Court during his sentencing.
“To post articles of this nature is to unleash the potential for such widespread and ongoing harm to a very large portion of our community.”
One victim said it was ‘nerve-wracking to realize that so many people were seeing me in these humiliating positions… I feel sick’ and feared for her safety after Hayler revealed her identity online.
Another said she was in shock when she heard Hayler had bragged about knowing her home address.
“The common theme is that they have lost a sense of security, privacy, memories once captured in images with a happy context, and above all, a sense of themselves and their past lives,” Judge Culver said.
“That’s a lot of damage.”
The court ruled that Hayler committed offenses until his arrest in August 2022.
He immediately cooperated with police and provided passwords so they could search his devices.
Judge Culver jailed Hayler for nine years, with a non-parole period of five and a half years.