A 19-year-old store attendant who was in one of the sex videos that a man posted to WhatsApp after a woman sent them to him from her boyfriend’s phone says she is feeling “suicidal”.
The woman made the revelation at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on Friday when speaking of the impact of the cybercrimes that Jayfornia Holder, 24, of Upper Cane Hall and Otis Gloster, 29, of Glen, committed against her.
“It has me feeling suicidal,” the woman said when Senior Magistrate Tammika Mc Kenzie asked about the impact of the crime on her.
She said that besides speaking to her fiance, she has received no other help or counselling.
“I cry myself to sleep at nights,” the woman told the court.
“Sometimes, when I walk the street, I have to have my head down because one time I was walking the street and a guy came up to me and said he wants to do me what the guy was doing me in the video.”
She told the court that she wanted an apology for what was done to her.
The magistrate suggested that the prosecution make provisions for the woman to speak to someone.
The store clerk was one of three women who told the court about the impact of the leaked videos on them.
They said they had caused them embarrassment, public harassment and affected their relationships with their significant others.
One of the women, a 22-year-old assistant teacher, told the court that she cannot walk the street in peace since the video was leaked.
“Men have been walking behind me and telling me to give them piece,” she told the court.
She said the father of her 26-month-old son has turned his back on them since the video began circulating.
He does not believe that the video was filmed before they met, the woman told the court.
The video was leaked on Nov. 1, and the father of her child called the following day, saying he had received it from a group chat.
She said the man told her that he did not want to have anything to do with her or their son.
“When I walk the street after the video was leaked, I have my head down seeing that the video is leaked and everybody has the video. I felt very depressed,” the woman told the court.
She said she would like something to be posted on the internet to say the video was “a long-time video”.
And, the third virtual complainant who testified before the court, a 23-year-old sales clerk, said she was surprised when she received a call from her boyfriend saying a video of her having sex was circulating.
“And then I told my boyfriend to send me the video… When I watched the video, I recognised the person in the background,” she said, adding that she called the person and asked him why a sex video of them was circulating on the internet.
She said her boyfriend told her that the video looked recent, but she told him it was not.
The sales clerk further told the court that the person with whom she was having sex in the video called her and said it was his girlfriend who had leaked the videos.
She said she asked him why he still had videos of them if he moved on to different people.
“He said he keeps them for memories. I told him that makes no sense,” the woman told the court.
“Up to this day, I am not Ok. I have not slept well or eaten well because it is like I just have to remember every day I come work, somebody talking about the video,” the woman told the court.
“And my boyfriend also, he has been accusing me of the video being recent. He says whenever they go to court, they will know if it is a recent video,” she said.
“I want them to be charged for this. I want them to apologise and tell the truth about who leaked the video,” she said, adding that Holder had lied at first about how the videos came to be in the public domain.
The videos ended up in the public domain after Holder found them on her boyfriend’s phone and sent them to Gloster, her co-worker.
Gloster then posted them to his WhatsApp status and sent them to people who requested them.
The magistrate said she found it extremely aggravating that Holder had deleted from her boyfriend’s phone the videos of them having sex but shared with her co-worker the videos of her boyfriend having sex with other women.
She told the prosecutor, acting Corporal of Police Stapleton, that she would refer the virtual complainants to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to arrange counselling for them.
Holder pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal access to a computer system, namely a cellular phone belonging to a 27-year-old chauffeur, Holder’s boyfriend.
She and Gloster each pleaded guilty to a charge of violation of privacy, sexual harassment by electronic communication and cyberbullying in relation to each of the three women who appeared in the sex videos.
The court gave Holder until March 31, 2026, to pay EC$20,000 in fines or spend one year in prison.
Gloster has until June 30, 2026, to pay EC$25,000 or face the same prison term.
They were each also sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years.
There is an old adage tat the victim is the author of her own misfortunes. It is hard to believe that the victim have suffered psychological harm. To the extent that she participated willingly in the whole narrative.
There is absolutely no evidence that the complainant consented to being videotaped or further consented to being videotaped or public consumption. There is a reason those who disseminated the video have been convicted of a criminal offence-the complainant would not have been a complainant had she been a willing pornographic actress. We need to empathize with the plight of others even though we may not be in the same boat. It is called common humanity!!!