A woman at the centre of a revenge porn lawsuit has been awarded $1.2 billion (£944.6 million) in damages.

The woman, known only as Jane Doe, says her ex-boyfriend Marques Jamal Jackson started harassing her after their four-year relationship ended in 2020.

He shared sexually explicit pictures and videos of her online without her consent – and in a chilling email he told her she would spend the rest of her life ‘trying and failing’ to wipe herself from the internet.

Court documents say Jackson intended to ’embarrass, harass, torment, humiliate, and publicly shame’ his victim, the MailOnline reports.

He’d also hacked into her family home’s security system to spy on her, sent links to the intimate images to her close friends, family, and co-workers, and accessed her bank accounts and used her money to pay his rent.

In a threatening email sent in March 2022, he told her: ‘I want you to tell. Show everyone I know that this is what I am now. I will anyway. Police too.

‘Won’t change the fact you will spend the rest of your life trying and failing to wipe yourself off the internet.

‘Everyone you ever meet will hear the story and go looking… Happy hunting.’

Following a one-day trial, which Jackson refused to attend, the Texas jury ordered him to pay his victim $200 million for past and future mental anguish, and $1 billion in exemplary damages.

It’s one of the largest judgements awarded in state history.

Jackson is currently out of state and hasn’t been extradited for further prosecution, according to lawyers representing Jane Doe.

Lead trial lawyer Bradford J Glide said: ‘These incidences are happening all the time, and victims of these types of crimes go to extremes.

‘In addition to suffering severe mental anguish, PTSD, they also have suicidal thoughts and some actually complete the act.

‘We are grateful the jury took a strong stand against the defendant’s abhorrent behavior and against imaged-based sexual abuse. 

‘While a judgment in this case is unlikely to be recovered, the compensatory verdict gives the victim back her good name. 

‘The punitive verdict also is the jury’s plea to raise awareness of this tech-fueled national epidemic. 

‘We will forever admire Jane Doe’s courage in fighting back.

‘We hope the staggering amount of this verdict sends a message of deterrence and prevents others from this engaging in this despicable activity.’

Jane Doe’s lawyers say they don’t expect she will ever receive that much money – instead, they hope this landmark ruling will set a precedent in Texas for anyone else who tries to commit the same crimes.

Speaking to Fox26 anonymously, the victim said of her name and reputation: ‘It’s been disparaged. It’s been defamed. It has attempted to be reduced to someone’s disgusting desire to hate. 

‘I tried everything. Anything that I could think of to get help. I tried to get help.

‘I hope that this effort makes it easier for other people. Doing the work is part of moving forward.’ 

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article