Nov. 16 (UPI) -- The mayor of a Maryland city has been arrested and charged with 50 counts of distributing revenge pornography online.
Maryland State Prosecutor Charlton Howard announced the charges against Cambridge Mayor Andrew Bradshaw on Monday, stating he is accused of publishing pictures of a woman he was previously in an intimate relationship with on Reddit, a social media networking platform, without her consent and with intent to harm her.
The criminal complaint states he published the photos of the victim's face and intimate parts on Reddit forums related to sexual activity in April and May through accounts with usernames consisting of permutations of her legal name and date of birth.
Some of the photos were also captioned with racial slurs and degrading language, it said, adding the photographs were posted with an IP address associated with Bradshaw's residence.
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The city of Cambridge said in a statement on its website that it is aware of the charges and will cooperate fully with the authorities.
"As this is an active legal matter, no further comments will be made at this time," it said.
According to the complaint, law enforcement became aware of the pictures on May 14 by the victim, who said "she transmitted the posted photographs only to one other person, Andrew Bradshaw, that the photographs were sent when she and Bradshaw were in an intimate relationship and that she did not provide Bradshaw with consent to re-distribute the photographs."
Maryland's Revenge Porn Statute prohibits the nonconsensual distribution of such materials, and if convicted, Bradshaw could face a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment and a $5,000 fine for each count.
"Using someone's private images without their consent is a serious breach of trust and invasion of privacy, and the power and breadth of the Internet makes such a violation even more egregious," said Howard in a statement. "Our office is committed to protecting victims from those who abuse their positions of power and trust."
