The man behind a "revenge porn" website was sentenced yesterday to 18 years in prison for posting thousands of private photos and charging women to have them removed, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Kevin Bollaert, 28, was convicted last month of 27 felony counts—21 for identity theft and six for extortion—but still claimed during sentencing that he ran the now-defunct UGotPosted.com without knowing it was illegal. A prosecutor disagreed, saying "this man was told time and time again, 'You are ruining my life.'" Indeed, victims testified in a San Diego courtroom to the pain they had endured: "It's just broken me on a level that's not describable," said one of the women, NBC San Diego reports. "The only thing I have left is shame and anger."
Bollaert often received the images from angry ex-boyfriends, then posted them and linked each image to a social-media page belonging to the victim. The women received all kinds of comments, from threats to come-ons, and could only have the images taken down by paying up to $350 at another Bollaert site, ChangeMyReputation.com. Bollaert admitted that he made $900 monthly from Web advertising and $30,000 by charging women to have images removed. "I don’t know, dude. Like, it was just fun," read the judge in quoting Bollaert's words to an investigator. "At the beginning it was kind of fun and entertaining, but now it’s kind of ruining my life." True enough: Bollaert will have serve at least half his sentence, pay a $10,000 fine, and $15,000 more to his victims, the LA Times reports. (More revenge porn stories.)
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