Is it sexual assault to secretly record consensual sex? Ottawa case sparks debate
Secretly filming and sharing footage of consensual sex constitutes a sexual assault, according to an Ottawa judge’s recent ruling, sparking a debate over how courts view consent in cases involving technology.
Views on the issue have been evolving in recent years, spurred by high-profile cases, particularly involving teenagers, of revenge porn and “sextortion,” which involves threatening to share evidence of sexual activity unless demands are met.
The federal government added a Criminal Code charge for the non-consensual sharing of intimate images online, and some provincial legislatures have changed laws in the hopes of offering victims more recourse through civil claims.
But the recent case out of Ottawa raises a new question.
“This is a really unique case because this is not something we’ve seen before,” said Moira Aikenhead, a law professor at the University of Victoria who specializes in technology-based gender violence.
“When you have otherwise consensual sexual activity that has been non-consensually recorded, it is not at all settled in Canadian law right now whether that act of recording itself can transform that sexual activity from something that is consensual to something that is non-consensual.”
Jacob Rockburn was sentenced last week to seven years in prison, less time served, after being found guilty in February of sexually assaulting two women, as well as distributing the images online.
Each of the women had consensual sex with Rockburn but later learned that he had filmed them without their consent and uploaded videos to Pornhub, a popular pornography website, using degrading titles.
Both women, whose identities are protected by a publication ban, told the court they would have not consented to sex had
Read more on globalnews.ca
