National cricketer Lendl Simmons has been ordered to pay his former lover $150,000 in compensation for disseminating a series of photographs of them engaged in sexual act.
Delivering a landmark ruling in the Port-of-Spain High Court Justice Frank Seepersad ruled that Simmons had breached the confidentiality of his relationship with 24-year-old mother of two, Therese Ho, by sending the photos to her friends after their relationship ended in 2013.
While Seepersad admitted that local laws had not developed to address issue of revenge porn, the court had a duty to develop and interpret existing laws to protect citizens such as Ho from the pain and suffering which resulted from the unregulated practice popularised with the increased use of social media.
He also called upon Parliament to seriously consider introducing legislation to address the issue and other forms of cyber harassment including racism in online posts, examples of which followed the general election last month.
In addition to the compensation, Simmons was also ordered delete the photographs and to refrain from further disseminating them. Seepersad also ordered that copies of the photos used during the case be immediately destroyed.