The video shows a hand opening a door and the camera pans on a man and woman engaged in a sexual act. A voice, which appears to be that of the woman holding the camera, says the name of the woman in the bed and asks, ‘how could you do that to me’. The man in the bed asks the woman behind the camera how she got there, and she says she was called.
The woman in the video uses an expletive, hurriedly puts on her underwear and sits on the bed. Her expression ranges between mortified and terrified as she is berated by the woman holding the camera for betraying her trust and having a relationship with her partner. She appears to be very young.
This video had been making its way across social media last week.
I was horrified by what I saw but more appalled by the reactions of others, especially on Facebook. Many found the video funny. It spawned countless memes, many using the name of the young woman in the video. Others were of a still shot of the man standing there insipidly as the mother of his child berated her ‘friend’.
The sharing of this video follows a sickening trend by persons who feel it is quite alright to film people without their permission and put same on the world wide web. They do not spare a thought for the mental health of the people involved, nor the fact that they are actually committing a crime which is punishable by a term in prison.
What I found especially jarring is how many women supported the filming and sharing of the video. Their justification being that women must not get involved with other women’s husbands or partners. While I agree that women should have respect for themselves and each other and not enter intimate relationships with men when they know they are already involved, no one has the right to humiliate another person by sharing such videos. There is also no instance, including infidelity, where one person has the right to physically assault another person.
The woman who recorded the video may have been hurt. She was betrayed by both her partner and her ‘friend’. Yet, the venom and condemnation she spewed during the recording were all directed at the woman. I cannot help but wonder at this and whether the video maker addressed this issue with her partner.
I am also very concerned about how the other woman, and she appears very young (her frightened eyes still haunts me), is going to get pass this incident. Beyond the humiliation at being caught is the fact that her image has been shared and re-shared. The people who shared it—and they should know that they committed a crime by doing so—would not be able to withstand that public humiliation. I hope she is getting the support she needs.
The video maker, who has committed a crime, should be charged. She has since made another video, where she shed some tears and denied that she was responsible for sharing of the video. “I am not a person like that,” she claimed.
Well, she might not have uploaded the video to Facebook, but she must have shared it with someone who did, or who sent it to others. But the mere fact that she recorded the video and had it stored on her device constitutes a crime according to our country’s laws.
We have seen too much of this in recent times. Just last year there was the case of the 29-year-old unemployed woman, Annissa Williams, who was charged with sharing a nude video of a woman to WhatsApp and Pornhub. It was alleged that between July 1, 2019 and July 31, 2019 at Castello Housing Scheme, Georgetown, Williams knowingly or without lawful justification exposed for public viewing, a video intending to corrupt public morals. That case is ongoing.
Then there was Yougita Etwaru who faced an indictable charge and was placed on $100,000 bail. Etwaru is accused of sharing and circulating nude photos of a woman who lives in her village. The woman is said to be the ex-girlfriend of Etwaru’s current boyfriend, Rayon Anthony Singh, also of Number 79 Village.
Since the recent video another has surfaced but this one is a few years old and it was even more horrifying. Not only was the woman who was allegedly involved with a married man physically assaulted while she was naked, but she was forced to perform a sex act on the man on camera. The person who was doing the recording and the betrayed wife, forced her to do so even as she cried and pleaded. The husband stood clothed but exposed, as the woman was being beaten to perform the act even as she asked them to kill her instead, gesturing with his hand to the sobbing woman to obey his wife’s instruction. The unmitigated gall of that still rankles.
That case reached the courts and the assaulted woman was counselled by Red Thread, but in the end, according to reports, she accepted monetary compensation.
It is known that people who are hurt tend to lash out, but one has to be very sick to go as far as the examples mentioned above and then to be emboldened by those who feel that ‘once she get ketch with people man’ anything is allowed. Just where are we heading as a society?
I hope to see the Guyana Police Force hauling more of these women before the courts. Let them serve as examples and deterrents to those who might want to go down the same road.
While there are charges under the Criminal Law Offences Act 8:01, such as exhibiting obscene photographs tending to corrupt public morals, persons should also be mindful of the Cybercrime Act of 2016.
Specifically, it states in 16 (1) “A person commits an offence if the person intentionally captures, stores in, publishes or transmits through a computer system, the image of the private area of another person without that other person’s consent.
“(2) A person who commits an offence under subsection (1), is liable –
“(a) on summary conviction to a fine of $3 million and to imprisonment for three years; and
“(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine of $8 million and to imprisonment for five years.
“(3) For the purposes of this section, ‘private area’ means the genitals, buttocks or breast.”
It goes without saying that this includes men. Men have been involved in these dastardly acts as well and they also need to face the music.
Last year, Jamaican Donavan Powell admitted to publicizing nude pictures and videos of his ex-girlfriend, American television anchor Darieth Chisolm and was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $1 million. And in 2015, West Indies cricketer Lendl Simmons was ordered to pay his former lover $150,000 in compensation for disseminating a series of photographs of them engaged in sexual acts.
We need more convictions in Guyana. People need to understand that they are committing serious criminal offences when they choose that route.
Sisters, regardless of how hurt you are at the betrayal by your partner, you have absolutely no right to record any sex act or any nudity of the woman involved. You need not deal with the woman, deal with your partner. And this should not involve violence or you recording or uploading obscene images of him either.
You will be charged and could be imprisoned. It could never be worth it.
