A 31-year-old Seattle man was sentenced to one year in jail on Friday for posting nude photos of women on two different websites in a bizarre case of “revenge porn.”
Jeremy “Silo” Walters, a photographer and computer technician, pleaded guilty to first-degree computer trespass and four counts of cyberstalking, a gross misdemeanor charge. He faced a standard sentence of up to 90 days behind bars, but agreed to an exceptional sentence for abusing the trust of one victim and to avoid prosecution for a domestic-violence charge involving a woman he apparently dated for a time.
According to charging documents, Walters was hired by a woman in June 2011 through an ad posted on Craigslist to transfer data from an old computer to a new one. Included on her hard drive were several hundred explicit photos a friend had taken of the woman, along with nude “selfies” she had stored for her personal use, the papers say.
More than two years later, in December 2013, the woman began receiving threatening phone calls from Walters, the papers say. He threatened to send naked photos of the woman to her family and friends if she refused to “play along,” then threatened to rape her and gang rape her with his friends, charging papers say.
After calling police, the woman received a message from a friend in England who said nude photos of the woman were posted on the revenge-porn site myex.com, the papers say. The following day, she got another phone call and Walters again threatened to send the photos to her loved ones if she refused his sexual demands, according to the charges.
In the days and weeks after the first post to myex.com, he sent links to the photos to her friends and family, charging papers say.
A friend conducted a forensic examination on the woman’s computer, determined that her machine hadn’t been hacked and concluded the photos had been stolen directly off her hard drive, the papers say.
In February, the woman picked Walters’ photo out of a montage, telling police he was the man she paid $60 to transfer her data, according to the charges. In June, Seattle detectives served a search warrant on Walters’ apartment near North Seattle College, and police say Walters admitted to posting the photos because he was angry at the woman and gave detectives an external hard drive where he had stored the photos, the papers say.
He was charged with first-degree computer trespass, a felony, and cyberstalking on June 27.
In August, he was charged with two additional counts of cyberstalking for posting nude photos of two other women on myex.com around the same time he posted photos of the first woman, court records show. The documents don’t provide information about how he obtained the other victims’ photos, but one of those women appears to have been a former girlfriend — and the charge pertaining to her carries an allegation of domestic violence.
On Monday, the same day he entered his guilty pleas, Walters was charged with a fourth count of cyberstalking for posting a nude photo of a fourth woman on Craigslist in January, the court records say. Those charging papers don’t provide details on how Walters is suspected of obtaining that photo.
Seattle man sentenced for posting ‘revenge porn’ of women - The Seattle Times (blog)
How horrible for this woman to have gone through this! And from a perfect stranger, no less! Goodness! I’m glad he is caught, and faced felony charges. I just hope the victims can heal and move on.