Ex-girlfriend of net stalker tells of hurt from explicit images

Shane Webber, 23, from Nottingham, was jailed for four months at Southampton Magistrates’ Court after admitting he harassed Ruth Jeffery by posting sexual images on social networking sites and tagging the photos to draw them to the attention of her family, friends, and parents, unbeknown to her.

He also tried to implicate one of his friends, Lee Evans, by putting the posts in an email address bearing Mr Evans’s name, leading to his arrest.

He was only found out when Miss Jeffery’s family made their own inquiries and the emails were traced back to him.

Outside court Miss Jeffery, 22, said: “I am extremely pleased with the outcome. The maximum sentence in a magistrates’ court will never make up for the hurt he had put me through but I can now put it behind me.

“I was absolutely devastated when I found out it was him. I could not believe it was Shane. I did not want to believe it.”

The court was told that the pair had met at school and got together at an early age before Miss Jeffery moved with her family to Southampton.

The relationship with Webber continued when she started a computer science course at Loughborough University.

Webber began the campaign in April 2010 when Miss Jeffery aborted their child and he became angry.

He posted 10 to 12 explicit images of Miss Jeffery and himself with her, on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Tumblr and Google Picasa, the court heard.

In passing sentence, District Judge Anthony Callaway said the offence was a “gross violation of Miss Jeffery’s privacy”.