New guidelines from the Sentencing Council for England and Wales published 05 July and coming into force 01 October include longer sentences for those offenders who repeatedly repost revenge porn, following a consultation which showed a trend of some offenders doing this. Revenge porn - the act of distributing sexual images of an individual in order to humiliate them - was made a criminal offence in 2015.

Commenting on the guidelines, Mishcon de Reya Associate and Professional Support Lawyer Isabella Piasecka said:

"The new sentencing guidelines reflect the potentially devastating effect of these offences.

"It is also surely right that the more serious and persistent offenders, including those who repeatedly upload "revenge porn" or set up fake social media accounts to embarrass their targets, should face the toughest penalties."

Since 2015, Mishcon de Reya has been working with the Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre to support its revenge porn project, SPITE (Sharing and Publishing Images to Embarrass). The SPITE project provides victims of revenge porn with specialist free legal advice, bringing together undergraduate law students from Queen Mary University with volunteer lawyers from Mishcon de Reya to provide bespoke advice to victims. Together, they work closely with the Revenge Porn Helpline to ensure that clients have full assistance in removing images which are posted online.

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