North Okanagan man sent to prison for revenge porn uploads

At one point after their relationship was over North Okanagan resident Ansen George Hannah sent his former partner a message saying that "one day" he would get her back "either by revenge or not." He later uploaded six intimate videos of the couple having sex to an online pornographic website along with 17 photos of his former partner. Hannah told the court, Nov. 4, he didn't realize the harm he was doing by uploading the videos until he read his former partner's victim impact statement earlier that day. "I thought life as I knew it was over," Crown prosecutor Jordan Schroeder said as he read the victim impact statement to the court. "I fear every minute of every day of what will happen next... I live behind locked doors... I would love to live like a normal person." The victim's name is covered under a court-ordered publication ban and iNFOnews.ca has kept details of this story purposely vague to protect her identity. The court heard how after the 47-year-old and the victim separated she got a court order barring him from contacting her. He ignored it and was charged with several counts of breaching a no-contact order. Defence lawyer Nick Jacob said Hannah uploaded the video to a paid subscription-only website used by people to hook up, and both had been members. He said Hannah didn't do it as a matter of revenge. Hannah tried to argue his actions weren't malicious and he posted the video to "tout" the victim as a positive member of the website saying he thought she would "appreciate" it. BC Provincial Court Judge Clarke Burnett had none of it. "This was done when the relationship was over, there's a protection order in place," the judge said. "She did not consent for these images to be uploaded. "This is a very terrible and horrific violation of someone's privacy." Hannah had planned to fight the charges at trial but ultimately admitted to uploading the videos and pleaded guilty instead. The court heard how Hannah lived in Armstrong and had previously worked for Tolko Industries among others, but had been off work for health reasons for the last couple of years. He now has a new partner who sat next to him in the courtroom. At the time of the offence, he had no criminal record, and his lawyer asked for a sentence of house arrest, citing his lack of criminal history. The Crown wanted three to four months jail followed by two years probation. While Hannah didn't have a record at the time of the offence he has since been charged with aggravated assault, although the charge was later stayed, and has an ongoing charge for assault with a weapon, uttering threats and break and enter. He was also recently found guilty of assault with a weapon. In a statement to the court, Hannah said his actions were "totally misguided" and that he never meant to hurt her. The videos have since been deleted. While many individuals receive house arrest for serious crimes if they are first-time offenders Judge Burnett said it would be "foolish" of him to hand out such a sentence given that Hannah had previously broken court orders. The judge said that a sentence had to denounce the behaviour and deter others from doing it. "Individuals who think that posting intimate images without another's consent on the World Wide Web does not result in significant consequences need to know that it does," the judge said. "If you do that, you're going to go to jail." Ultimately, Judge Burnett sentenced Hannah to four months in jail. "This type of behaviour has to be condemned, and it has to be condemned in the strongest of terms," he said. To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer mailto:bbulmer@infonews.ca  or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .