‘devastating’ | 

Man with ‘no respect for women’ avoids prison after admitting sharing intimate images

​The judge was told Cassidy’s actions had such a devastating impact on the victim’s mental health that ‘if it wasn’t for the fact that she’s a mother, she would not be here’

Yesterday at 16:37

A man with “absolutely no respect for women” has narrowly avoided prison after he admitted sharing intimate images.

District Judge Oonagh Mullan told Robin Cassidy he should be disgusted with and ashamed of himself.

The 35-year-old, from Mountfield Road in Claudy, admitted a single charge of disclosing a private sexual image between October 11 and 14 , 2021, without the woman’s consent.

Strabane Magistrates Court heard he and his victim had been exchanging messages in which they threatened to expose private photographs of each other.

The next day a friend of the woman contacted her to say a video and an image had been posted online.

Arrested after the woman’s mother reported the matter to police, Cassidy admitted his crime and issued a public apology.

​The judge was told Cassidy’s actions had such a devastating impact on the victim’s mental health that “if it wasn’t for the fact that she’s a mother, she would not be here”.

The court heard while Cassidy had no history of sexual offending, he had been convicted of assaulting and threatening to kill a former partner.

A defence lawyer said Cassidy was sorry for the “embarrassment and distress” he had caused his victim.

They added that the benefit of him pleading guilty could not be overstated because it spared the woman from having to give evidence and was a public acknowledgement of his guilt.

The judge said it was not in her power to impose a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, so she was imposing a three-year restraining order.

She told Cassidy while the custody threshold had been passed, she was taking into account his guilty plea and the time that had elapsed since his offending.

He was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for three years.

The judge also told the victim she had every sympathy for her.

She added: I hope you can move forward with your life and put this behind you.”