THE first person to be convicted under revenge porn laws in Scotland got off too lightly and will offend again, his victim claimed today (mon).
Kenneth Robinson made legal history last week when he was convicted of threatening to release a video of his former partner performing a sex act.
The woman, whose identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons, today broke her silence to complain that Robinson’s £200 compensation order was too lenient.
The woman, from Eyemouth, Berwickshire, said: “It doesn’t really give me comfort that he’s been convicted.
“He’s had no punishment really – a £200 victim pay out which I know he won’t pay and a three-year ban from contacting me, but that was his bail conditions and he still did.”
The woman added: “He sent me a message before he was convicted saying he knows my new address and I’ve only been in here for a few weeks, hardly anyone knows my address.
“I haven’t contacted the police because I thought ‘just ignore it and it’ll go away’. But if he contacts me now that he’s got the ban I will contact them.
“I’m still getting private messages from his friends on Facebook. I don’t know if it’s his way of getting round it. He even sent me a friend request and he shouldn’t have as it was against his bail conditions.
“I was terrified. I was frightened he was going to turn up here.
“Even after the police were contacted the first time it continued. Then when he made the threat I contacted the police again.”
While not happy with the outcome of the case, the woman does take comfort in the fact that the new laws might help others in her position.
“I suppose it does make me feel a bit better that other people might be protected. I hope it means there’s less chance of people going through what I went through”, she added.
Robinson, 59, from Blyth, Northumberland, pleaded guilty to causing his former partner fear and alarm by bombarding her with unwanted e-mails, in one of which made a threat to release the video.
In court, Robinson’s defence lawyer said the couple’s 18-month relationship broke down when his client discovered his partner had cheated on him on holiday. The woman totally denies this claim.
She said: “He accused me of cheating which isn’t true. I was up here [Eyemouth] because I lost my mum in February and he turned paranoid when I was away from him.
“I also went on holiday, it’s a long standing thing with folk my age that are married, but he said he’d kill me if I went this year.
“I laughed it off but we went to Turkey and he turned up on our last day. There was no argument or anything as it was in a bar.
“He wanted me to stay out with him but I came home with my friends and before I got to the airport which was about an hour and a half he had send lots of emails.”
“When I got home he had got someone to change the alarm code at the house and he cancelled my taxi home from the airport.
“My clothes were outside and my car keys were hanging from the letter box. There’s lots of stuff belonging to my mum still in his house which I’m never going to get back.”
The couple originally met on holiday, after which the woman moved from Eyemouth to Northumberland to live with Robinson. But his behaviour changed six months into the relationship and he began trying to control her.
She added: “I lived in Blyth with him for 18 months. He was clever looking back as I hadn’t known him for that long when I moved in.
“We met on holiday and he was really nice at first but he began to change after about six months. It’s really obvious looking back but at the time I didn’t really notice.
“I used to work night shift to make sure I wasn’t in when he got back from the pub. He got verbally aggressive when he’d been drinking, I can’t say he got physical because he never did.
“I found out after we’d split up from one of his friends that he’d battered an ex, so I was lucky in that regard.
“Even if I was five minutes longer than I said I’d be at the shop it was: ‘Where have you been? Who have you been talking to’
“If we were on a night out and somebody spoke to me – god help me.
“Even when mum died he didn’t come up to see me, he said he was busy. I looked around and everybody else had somebody and I was on my own.
“I hadn’t worked for eight weeks before she died because she had terminal cancer. So I had no money and he offered me money – but then he became funny about when I would be paying it back.
“He said ‘how else could you pay me back’ hinting I could pay him back in other ways.”
On the day of his court hearing Kenneth took to Facebook to say that it would be his last visit to Scotland.
He wrote: “Have so now finished with jockland last time today will ever cross that border.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said:“Scottish Ministers cannot comment on nor intervene in individual cases. Judges are best placed to decide on an appropriate sentence for each offender based on all the facts and circumstances of a case.”
