Threatening to Record or Distribute an Intimate Image

Threatening to Record or Distribute an Intimate Image is an offence under Section 91R of the Crimes Act 1900, which carries a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison.

To establish the offence, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that:

1. You threatened to record or distribute an intimate image of another person
2. Without that person’s consent
3. Intending to cause the person to fear the threat would be carried out.

The treat can be made by any conduct whether explicit or implicit, conditional or unconditional.

The image does not actually have to exist, and the prosecution does not need to prove that the threatened person feared the threat would be carried out.

An ‘intimate image’ is defined as:

A person’s private parts, or a person engaged in a private act, or an image altered to appear to show a person’s private parts, or the person engaged in a private act, where a reasonable person would expect to be afforded privacy.

‘Private parts’ is defined as:

The genital or anal area, whether bare or covered by underwear, or the breasts of a female, or transgender or intersex person identifying as a female whether or not the breasts are developed.

‘Private act’ is defined as:

A state of undress, or using the toilet, showering or bathing, or a sexual act of a kind not ordinarily done in public, or any other like activity.