By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A 21-year-old man who sent naked pictures of his children’s mother to her co-workers was yesterday sentenced to nine months in prison.
Devon Perpall was charged with intentional libel after he was accused of exposing nude photos of his three-year-old child’s mother on social media sometime in December last year.
He pleaded guilty when he appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney.
The court was told that Perpall and his child’s mother had been in a relationship for four years. At the time of the incident, the woman told police that the accused sent nude photos of her chest and genital areas to her manager and supervisor, after he accused her of keeping his child away from him.
As a result of her complaint, Perpall was arrested. In an interview with police at a nearby station, he admitted storing the sexually explicit photos in his Gmail account. He also said he was the only person who had access to his phone, but denied showing the photos of the woman to her colleagues at work.
The prosecution said when officers checked Perpall’s phone, they found screenshots of his child’s mother that were taken during a nude video call. He was subsequently charged with the offence.
Yesterday, Perpall told the magistrate the naked photos were in his phone because he and the complainant had been in a relationship for four years. He also said he had another “baby mother” and claimed he spent time with the six-month-old baby he had with her last Christmas. Perpall alleged the complainant had caused the mother of his second child to lose her job, so she went into his phone to leak the complainant’s pictures.
After the magistrate told the accused he would not be able to accept his guilty plea if he was suggesting he was not the one to expose the naked pictures, Perpall owned up to the offence and admitted leaking the images himself.
As a result, Magistrate McKinney told Perpall his actions exposed his child’s mother to ridicule and placed her in an uncomfortable position where her character would be questioned by others. As a result, he sentenced the accused to nine months in prison.
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