Locations
Glasgow Road, Dumbarton, Scotland, G821
Description
The woman has spoken of her devastation after 'friend' Sean Monaghan uploaded photographs and posted sick comments on US X-rated website.
A young woman has told of her devastation after a close friend posted pictures of her and 10 other women alongside disgusting comments on a porn website.
She was horrified to find that Balloch man Sean Monaghan was behind the sick stunt which saw innocent photos of women from across the area viewed thousands of times on an X-rated US site.
Several of the girls travelled to Dumbarton Sheriff Court last week to watch as justice was served on the 24-year-old former shop worker, who was placed on the sex offenders register for two years and handed a community payback order with 200 hours of unpaid work.
The young woman spoke of her relief at the ending of the case but said that she has been traumatised by the betrayal and now struggles to trust those close to her.
She said: We are really pleased with the sentence and the fact hes been put on the sex offenders register.
The sheriff [Maxwell Hendry] went through him and was fantastic.
The sheriff said the issue was the threatening comments and threats he had made alongside the photos, not the pictures themselves. They were just normal prom and selfie photos.
Seans lawyer said he knew how we felt but he has no idea.
We are glad its over but its been such a long, distressing and embarrassing process. It was awful having to tell our families. We just want people to know what hes done.
He seemed a normal guy and we would never have thought hed have done something like this.
He was a best friend and I find it really difficult to trust people now and Im cautious about what I put up on Facebook.
Monaghan pleaded guilty to posting the images onto adult pornographic websites and the internet without the womens knowledge or permission.
He also admitted posting comments referring to the images which were of a sexually violent, threatening, offensive and derogatory nature, encouraging other users to post similar comments, posting images of his penis alongside the pictures and committing a breach of the peace.
The offences took place over the course of a year between November 1, 2014, and November 1, 2015, at his home in Inchconnachan Avenue.
Monaghan, who now lives on Glasgow Road in Dumbarton East, knew all of the women, who are aged between 20 and 25, and took holiday and prom photographs from their Facebook pages before uploading them on the adult site.
Some of the women were his colleagues at a shop in Dumbarton where he worked at the time.
The Lennox Herald told last year how the women only discovered the images after being alerted by one of the groups college friends at Halloween.
They were dismayed when police officers initially told them there was nothing they could do as no crime had been committed so they decided to track the perpetrator down themselves and set up a couple of fake profiles on the site.
It was there they read the horrifying comments and were able to confirm the person behind it was a trusted friend.
She continued: There were videos of him on there touching himself to our pictures and we recognised his voice, his laptop and even his hands.
By that point, we knew it was him so we confronted him but he said he didnt know anything about it.
He later messaged me and a few of the other girls admitting it and saying he was sorry and that he didnt mean it.
Once the police got on board again they were fantastic and they have been good throughout in keeping us updated on the case.
She added: It still feels quite raw. At first I didnt want to be angry with him because he was my friend but as all the comments were read out in court I thought I shouldnt feel sorry for him. Now its just hatred.
He still lives in Dumbarton and I still drive past his car all the time and Im reminded of what hes done.
Even on Facebook, old photos of us will pop up as memories from when we were friends.
When I look at them and look at him now I see a different person.
The Sean I thought I knew wasnt my friend at all.