A London-passed PR professional was just slapped with a harsh but deserved penalty for secretly recording a sexual encounter he had with a closeted bisexual man then uploading it to the world wide web.
44-year-old Matthew Christian met his victim on dating site called barebackparty.com. The man identifies as bisexual, but was not out to any of his friends or family members. They chatted for a bit then agreed to meet up at Christian’s place.
Unbeknownst to the victim, Christian set up his laptop to record the encounter. He then uploaded it to XTube where it was seen more than 150,000 times and shared across dozens of other adult websites.
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It wasn’t until a friend of the victim saw the video, recognized his buddy, and alerted him to it that it was finally pulled from the Internet. As a result, the victim says he has suffered from the acute anxiety and panic attacks.
Christian eventually pulled the video off XTube, but by then it had already gone viral on countless other platforms. According to the victim’s lawyer, Nadeem Holland, the video is “still in the public domain and the man’s face clearly can be seen.”
Court documents reveal that Christian initially testified that he thought the victim knew was being recorded. He also said he was high on cocaine and crystal meth when he posted the film online.
But the victim insists otherwise.
Holland told the court: “Mr. Christian and the victim had discussed the fact he had not come out and that he was subject to cultural and societal pressures and this has caused him enormous anxiety and stress.”
This week, Judge Joanna Greenberg sided with the victim and sentence Christian to 22 weeks imprisonment suspended for 12 months.
“The private lives of each and every one of us is something that we are entitled to have respected,” she said. “In your case you abused the trust placed in you by the victim because he expected that his privacy would be respected.”
She continued: “Everyone knows and I am sure you knew that once something is out in cyber space it is there for ever. You allowed that film to be available to anyone and everyone by placing it on the internet.”
“What you did was a cruel and wicked thing to do.”
Christian, who is now engaged to be married to another man, was also ordered to complete 200 hours of community service and complete a 20 day stint in rehab, pay £1,500 ($2,000 U.S.) in compensation and £435 ($600 U.S.) court fees, and register as a sex offender for the next seven years.
Related: Married father of two busted for spying on male colleagues in bathroom, blames it on bisexual urges
photo credit: Matthew Christian/Twitter
Chris
If I were Christian’s fiancé, I’d ask myself what sort of man I’d be marrying and I’d break off not just the engagement but anything and everything having to do with this POS. No one can trust that their private conversations and/or most intimate interactions with him will not be similarly (mis)treated.
Seth
What’s that? A stranger you met on barebackparty.com couldn’t be trusted? Surely you jest.
Kernos
“The private lives of each and every one of us is something that we are entitled to have respected,” she said. “In your case you abused the trust placed in you by the victim because he expected that his privacy would be respected.”
I wish the US and UK governments and security institutions understood about privacy.
JetsetTX
I agree with the sentence with the exception of making him register as a sex offender for seven years.
Josh447
So Agee. I’d appeal. Though it may be technically accurate as I don’t know the verbiage of the law, I do know it is mainly used to address pedophiles via age of consent laws. It seems this has more to do with privacy rather than sexual misconduct.
scotshot
He secretly filmed the guy and put it on XTube. Not everyone can be out to the world, Christian works in PR and should have known the consequences of his actions. & years is a minimum in my mind. I hope the victim has some sons positive conversations with his family.
He BGB
Those British guys!
Danny595
This is what happens when you hook up with complete strangers who don’t love or care about you. People will treat strangers in ways that they would never treat someone that they love. It is amazing how shocked people are at these stories about discriminatory and offensive Grindr profiles, about how people secretly record sex and violate the privacy of their partners, about how people transmit HIV without disclosing, or about how people rob, assault or murder their hookup “date.”
People act this way because they don’t love or care for their partners, who are complete strangers. Cruelty, exploitation and insensitivity are not bugs, but rather are features of commercialized, mass promiscuity, which is sold to us by bars, bathhouses, and apps, and promoted by sites like Queerty.
Josh447
Causal sex will happen without being sold on it. Hate to break it to ya.
scotshot
All of which happens to people who have a family, friend or former partner who has done the same thing.
Danny595
scotshot –
1. Walking down the middle of a highway will result in your getting hit by a vehicle.
2. Every year, somewhere on Earth, a vehicle crashes into a residence, killing and injuring the occupants.
3. Ergo, there is no difference between walking in the middle of a highway and sitting in your living room. Both are dangerous.
Scotshot logic! lool!
seaguy
Let me guess you must be a self hating closeted gay guy.
charlie_jackpot
Being a registered sex offender will mean he’s locked out of several jobs for years
robertrpm1
Ummm, am I the only one… where can I find the video.
Me2
So where is this harsh but well deserved sentence that the article speaks of??? Because 200 hours of community service, 20 day rehab, a $2,600 fine and 7 year sex offender registry is NOT harsh! Harsh but well deserved would’ve been 5 or more years of prison time and an ass whooping, in addition to everything else.
DCguy
So the guys life was changed, there is a video of him that can never be erased from the internet and he got $2000.00 compensation? Seems low.
olfwob
t`s Europe. There are no Million € compensations. If you -as example- burn yourself with hot coffee no one will give you a lot of money. They will tell you “If you are old enough to drink coffee, you should be old enough to know, that coffee is hot”