“The punitive verdict also is the jury's plea to raise awareness of this tech-fueled national epidemic,” the woman’s attorneys said.
A Texas woman has been awarded $1.2 billion in a revenge porn lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend, who had been harassing her for years.
The woman, who went by the initials D.L. in the lawsuit, said in the lawsuit that her ex-boyfriend, Jackson Marques, was putting sexually explicit photos and videos of her on the internet and sending them to others without her consent for years.
"It's been about two years or three years. It's been painful and scary," D.L. told KHOU 11.
The former couple had been together for four years before D.L. ended the relationship in 2020, which is when she said Jackson began harassing her, KHOU 11 reported.
“You will spend the rest of your life trying and failing to wipe yourself off the internet. Everyone you ever meet will hear the story and go looking," Jackson allegedly said in one of his last messages to D.L., CBS News reported.
Following the breakup, D.L. said Jackson uploaded intimate photos and videos of her to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox and other websites, the lawsuit says.
D.L.'s ex would also send sexually explicit images of her to her family, friends and to her co-workers, ABC 13 reported.
Jackson also gained access to D.L.'s mother's home camera system to spy on her, according to the lawsuit.
Along with harassing her by spreading her intimate photos, Jackson also allegedly broke into D.L.’s bank account to take money to cover his rent and other bills, CBS News reported.
D.L.’s attorneys said in a statement that the jury saw evidence of Jackson reacting to the breakup “with the intent to embarrass, harass, torment, humiliate and publicly shame.”
While the $1.2 billion judgment is not expected to be paid to D.L. in full, her attorneys hope this case will set a precedent in image-based sexual abuse cases.
“The punitive verdict also is the jury's plea to raise awareness of this tech-fueled national epidemic,” D.L.’s attorneys said. “We will forever admire D.L.'s courage in fighting back. We hope the staggering amount of this verdict sends a message of deterrence and prevents others from this engaging in this despicable activity."
