Education Minister Anthony Garcia yesterday expressed concern with regards to the nude photographs of 500 young women which were leaked recently on social media in what police believed was a local pornography ring. He said he felt sorry for the victims and having realised that they had made mistakes, in time, they would be able to move on with their lives.
Among the 500 women identified were past and current students of the University of the West Indies’ St Augustine and Cave Hill, Barbados Campuses.
Many of the photographs which were sold to porn sites, locally, regionally and internationally led the Fraud Squad Unit, which is investigating the matter, to believe that a porn ring was being operated in T&T.
Questioned if the porn scandal was being investigated independently by the ministry as many of the victims were UWI students, Garcia said he had no information on the matter and apologised.
“I have not met with the principal (of UWI Prof Brian Copeland) nor any member of the faculty. All I know is what I read in the newspapers. I don’t have any information.
“I have been reading some of the statements by some of those persons who have been affected (victims) and the agony they are now experiencing I feel sorry for them.
“But as life goes there are mistakes that are made, I am sure that those persons will be able to move on, having realised that they have made mistakes,” he added.
Garcia was speaking to reporters yesterday after delivering the feature address at the 40th anniversary and graduation ceremony at the St Augustine Secondary School.
Asked if the perpetrators were found, what kind of punishment they could face for their actions, Garcia said he hoped that the law would soon take its course.
He drew reference to 42-year-old Glen Dalrymple who on Wednesday was sentenced to 21 days hard labour at the Arima Magistrates’ Court for making a hoax call last month to police warning of an attack on Trincity Mall by international terrorist group ISIS.
“In the schools system we have had occasions where a number of persons have been calling the schools saying there is a bomb on the premises. So I am hoping that the perpetrators of those actions will be dealt with,” Garcia added.
Preliminary investigations in the porn scandal have revealed that the initial server for the web site where the photographs were uploaded locally was recently changed to a new server based in the United States. The Cyber Crime Unit of the T&T Police Service was able to remove the site the pictures were originally posted on.
The T&T Guardian was told that some of the young women were taken to an apartment in St Augustine, a stone's throw away from the UWI Campus, where they were seduced into stripping and posing for the photographs. Others were taken to other apartments located in the Curepe area.
Some of the girls were as young as 15 years old when they were photographed in the nude, others in their 20s.