After Amy Hart appeared on Love Island, men started sending her unsolicited pictures of their penises online.
As her social media following grew to one million after being on the show in 2019, she says she was consistently tagged in ‘dick pics’.
“You’re flicking through the Instagram stories you’ve been tagged in and they just pop up,” the 31-year-old tells Sky News.
“These people tag loads of women in the public eye so they can say ‘this list of people have all seen my penis’.”
Amy Hart after appearing on Love Island in 2019. Pic: PA
Journalist Sophie Gallagher received 120 images of a stranger’s erect penis via her iPhone’s AirDrop function while she was travelling on the London Underground in 2017.
Despite turning the Bluetooth settings off, having campaigned on the issue ever since, she now receives similar images on social media and by email.
“This is by no means unique to me,” the 32-year-old says. “Anyone in the public eye – celebrities, politicians – are bombarded with it constantly.”
Sophie Gallagher, 32. Pic: Mal Vaja
Cyber flashing became a criminal offence in England when the Online Safety Act was passed on 31 January this year.
Today a man is due to be sentenced for it in England for the first time. It has been an offence in Scotland since 2009.
Nicholas Hawkes, 39, from Basildon, Essex, sent unsolicited photos of his erect penis to a woman and a 15-year-old girl on WhatsApp on 9 February and subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of sending a photograph or film of genitals to cause alarm, distress or humiliation.
‘Forcing women into sexual contact’
Consultant forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes says that men who commit cyber flashing fall into two categories.
“There’s a small group of men who do this as part of a fantasy that the women involved are going to feel aroused by this behaviour,” she says.
“But the vast majority do it as a form of male dominance – as a way of forcing women into a form of sexual contact with them – to cause them distress, shock, horror, or fear.”
Recalling her experience, Sophie says she felt “angry”, which then changed to “shame, guilt and embarrassment”.
“I was embarrassed people might think I was just looking at these pictures on my phone on the tube,” she says.
Professor Clare McGlynn, law professor at Durham University, who helped advise the government on the new law, says both physical indecent exposure and cyber flashing instil the same fear in victims.
“It’s the same harm, the same intimidation, the same fear of what’s going to happen next – it’s just happening in different ways,” she tells Sky News.
She also says that cyber flashing can often prove harder to escape from.
“You can’t get away online. It’s more difficult because our phones are in our hands every day. We need our phones and our laptops for our work, schooling, private lives, banking, shopping, etc.”
But while Professor McGlynn and campaigners say the first sentencing shows “good progress”, prosecutions will still likely be difficult.
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In 2023 the law on so-called ‘revenge porn’ was changed so that victims only need to show a lack of consent to their images being shared.
The cyber flashing legislation, however, requires proof that either the perpetrator intended to cause distress, or gain sexual gratification, and was reckless as to whether or not it would cause distress.
Amy says: “The law is great progress, but it needs to go further and become consent-based. Because to me they could just say it was a joke – and then it’s fine.”
Amy Hart in London in 2022. Pic: PA
Professor McGlynn adds: “It doesn’t make sense, we’ve got two different standards for two very similar offences.
“Sending someone a dick pic without consent should be the offence.
“The reason is that it doesn’t matter what the person was intending, it’s still harmful to you.”
She says the differing legal standard suggests the government “isn’t taking cyber flashing as seriously as it ought to” and “doesn’t recognise it as being as harmful” as sharing people’s intimate images without consent.
‘Short-skirt-drunk-woman argument for new generation’
Amy and Sophie say they have blocked users, deleted photos, and turned off certain settings to avoid seeing unwanted images – but it rarely solves the problem.
Sophie says: “I turn my AirDrop off, that has solved that, but what’s the next thing? Technology is constantly evolving so the next thing will be deepfakes, AI, a new social media platform.
“The argument that we should ‘just stop using social media’ is the short-skirt-drunk-woman argument for a new generation.
“It blames the victim – rather than the perpetrator – and minimises how important our online lives are and the right we have to live safely online.”
Amy Hart has to be careful about details she shares online. Pic: PA
Amy adds that there are some men who have threatened to turn up at her home.
Now she lives with her boyfriend and their one-year-old son, she says: “I can’t say where we are and what we’re going to be doing tonight in real time – because it’s not hard to work out where I live.
“Especially now I’ve got a baby – I do feel quite unsafe sometimes.”
Is cyber flashing a ‘gateway’ offence?
Last month a report into the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by former police officer Wayne Couzens revealed he had tried to show colleagues violent, extreme pornography and allegedly shared sexually graphic images with young women.
Wayne Couzens. Pic: Metropolitan Police
Couzens at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Kent where he exposed himself in 2021. Pic: Met Police
The mother of Libby Squires, who was abducted, raped and murdered by Pawel Relowicz in Hull in 2019, has stressed that he had watched women through windows and broken into their homes to steal intimate items in the weeks before he killed her.
Pawel Relowicz. Pic: Humberside Police
CCTV of Libby Squires’s killer Pawel Relowicz in Hull. Pic: Humberside Police
In the cyber flashing case in Essex, the defendant being sentenced today was already a registered sex offender having been convicted of sexual activity with a child under 16 last year.
Ms Daynes says that non-contact sex offences are often a “gateway” to physical, violent crimes.
“Often it’s a gateway offence, or one you see alongside other sexual offending, but sometimes it exists on its own,” she says.
“We’re still trying to figure out who will just operate in the virtual world – and those who will take it offline – for whom simply imagining the reaction of their victim isn’t enough.”
Professor McGlynn argues that while recent cases have “put the spotlight on non-contact offences”, they don’t just serve as ‘gateways’ or ‘red flags’.
“It’s not possible to say one leads to another,” she says. “Individuals offend in lots of ways that overlap, which means you have to take these offences seriously in and of themselves.
“Exposure and cyber flashing are men being intimidating and threatening, so we should take them seriously for that reason – not only because we think they’ll lead to a more ‘major’ offence.”
Platforms need to do more blurring/blocking
All four women say social media platforms need to do more to prevent people from seeing harmful images – both from strangers and people they know.
They fear a “reality-rhetoric gap”, with such a high burden of proof for the new offence, will mean police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will be reluctant to pursue cases.
Professor McGlynn says the provisions elsewhere in the Online Safety Act have meant regulator Ofcom’s guidance on what platforms should do is “weak”.
“They don’t have to block or blur nude and explicit images because the Online Safety Act is not telling them they have to,” she says. “And that completely misunderstands the harm – the harm is being sent them – just because you can delete them does not make it okay.”
Meta says that on WhatsApp, media sent by anyone not in a user’s contacts is automatically blurred – but this isn’t the case for people users are already connected with.
On Instagram, it says changes have been made to direct message requests so “you can’t receive any images or videos until you’ve accepted their request to chat”.
Apple says there are settings to stop others from seeing a device on AirDrop and sending it content, as well as a ‘sensitive content warning’ option that appears before users can open media that may contain nudity.
Meta runs Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
Sefer Mani, of the CPS in the East of England, argues the first cyber flashing case from Essex “shows the new law is working” and added: “Cyber-flashing is a grotesque crime. Everyone should feel safe wherever they are. I urge anyone who feels they have been a victim of cyber flashing to report it to the police and know that they will be taken seriously and have their identities protected.”
A government spokesperson added the Online Safety Act is a “deterrent” to cyber flashing, which gives police “the clarity they need to tackle offenders and keep people safe”.
An Ofcom spokesperson said it has proposed “robust measures” for tech firms and is consulting “at pace” on further enforceable changes. It expects to complete its consultation by the end of the year.
A man has been found guilty of murdering a mother as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter.
Cher Maximen, 32, was at the event in west London on 25 August last year when she was stabbed in the groin after trying to intervene in a fight.
Shakeil Thibou, 20, was charged with her murder after she died in hospital on 31 August.
He was found guilty by a majority of 10 to two jurors and is due for sentencing on 16 May.
Cher Maximen
Read more:
Mother killed in Notting Hill Carnival attack was ‘beautiful soul
Moments before stabbing Ms Maximen, Thibou carried out an “equally horrifying attack” on a man who was backing away from him, the Old Bailey has heard.
He was also convicted of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to 20-year-old Adjei Isaac with intent, and having an offensive weapon.
At the opening of the trial in February, prosecutor Ed Brown KC told the court Ms Maximen and the group she was with had got caught up in the middle of a “horrifying outbreak of violence”.
At the time, Ms Maximen had been crouched chatting to her friends as they sat on the ground with their children.
Cher Maximen
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She suffered a 12cm deep knife wound, which caused severe internal bleeding in her groin.
‘Pure anger’ in accused face
As jurors were shown police bodycam footage of the incident during a previous hearing at the Old Bailey, Mr Brown KC told them: “You will see pure anger in the face of Shakeil Thibou. This was right in front of her [Ms Maximen’s] three-year-old daughter.”
The “truly shocking” incident happened in just eight seconds.
How did it happen?
The Old Bailey previously heard how a crowd of hundreds splintered on Golborne Road in west London as Thibou and his two brothers, who were on trial alongside him facing separate charges, had an altercation with at least two other males.
Cher Maximen
Thibou produced a “huge” knife, described by one witness as a zombie knife, and lunged repeatedly at Mr Isaac in a “determined, thrusting movement”, the Old Bailey heard.
Mr Isaac recoiled and during the altercation the pair bumped into Ms Maximen who had been crouched chatting to her friends as they sat on the ground with their children.
The knife, the prosecutor said, missed Mr Isaac by “centimetres”.
Mr Brown KC told the court Ms Maximen struggled to regain her footing after being knocked to the ground.
He said: “Cher Maximen in those moments grabbed hold of Shakeil Thibou’s coat, pulled it and managed to get partially to her feet.
“She appeared to attempt to strike out with her hand at Shakeil who of course was still holding that knife in his hand. Cher Maximen took a step towards Shakeil Thibou and at the same time attempted to raise her right leg out towards him.
“It was at this moment, Shakeil Thibou raised the knife directly towards Cher Maximen and deliberately thrust it towards her, stabbing her in the groin.”
Sheldon Thibou was found guilty of violent disorder and guilty of assault on an emergency worker, PC Oliver Mort.
Shaeim Thibou was cleared of violent disorder but found guilty of assault on an emergency worker, PC Mort.
UK
Cher Maximen: Family’s ‘rage’ after mother fatally stubbed in front of daughter at Notting Hill Carnival
The family of a mother who was fatally stabbed as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter has said “the feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage”.
Cher Maximen, 32, was stabbed at the west London carnival’s “Family Day” on 25 August last year.
Shakeil Thibou, 20, has now been found guilty of her murder, by a majority jury verdict of 10-2, after a trial at the Old Bailey.
“I’ve lost my parents. I’ve lost my brother. Nothing has felt like this ever,” Ms Maximen’s cousin Lawrence Hoo told Sky News.
“It is the cruellest thing, it truly is.”
Lawrence Hoo
Ms Maximen died at a carnival she had been to so many times – she barely missed one.
On the day, Ms Maximen and her three-year-old daughter arrived at Europe’s biggest street party with a group of friends and their children. They’d been sitting and chatting when she was knocked over by some men who had started fighting.
News of her stabbing came almost immediately. Mr Hoo remembers receiving the call. “When I first heard that she’d been stabbed, I know it sounds silly, but I thought Cher will be alright. Cher’s strong, she’ll get through this.”
Ms Maximen was taken to hospital and underwent a number of emergency procedures before being put on life support.
Mr Hoo immediately headed to London to be at her bedside.
“I can remember being in the hospital being sat there with her, with other family members and that’s the last time I saw her. It still doesn’t feel real. There’s still disbelief,” he said.
“It’s the most senseless act to someone who had so much life and so much to give.”
Ms Maximen died from her injuries six days after the incident.
She was a vivacious young woman who grew up in Bristol and then London, finding her feet working with people in music and entertainment.
Ms Maximen was described as a “people person”, which for Mr Hoo manifested in her being “a bright light” in the lives of her loved ones.
He said: “It’s just this energy she had, she lit up the room. If you walked into a space, you’d know that Cher was there. Her energy itself would fill the room. She was a very bright light.”
Her life changed three years before her death when she became a mother in her late 20s.
Her daughter became her life’s work, she poured her love and energy into creating a person her family describe as her mini-me, “she’s Cher 2.0” Mr Hoo said.
Cher Maximen pictured as a child with her uncle Ty
Ms Maximen was stabbed just metres from her daughter on that day.
Mr Hoo said the idea of the toddler witnessing her mother on the ground punctuates the sadness the family feel with anger.
“The feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage,” he said. “She [Ms Maximen’s daughter] is aware that on that day, something happened to her mother.
“She saw her mother drop to the floor, and then she saw her mother bleed. That’s the daughter’s last living memory of her mother. And to live with that, knowing that that’s happened, that somebody did that. That’s why it’s so hard and that’s where the rage comes from.”
The family is now rallying around the little girl who is growing up without her mother.
Mr Hoo said the attack “will be a memory that will recur” for Ms Maximen’s daughter, adding “that is why it is so painful and hard to try to live with”.
“I think the trauma is going to be there, and trauma will raise its head when it chooses to come up. But we’ll be there for her,” he said.
The family held Ms Maximen’s funeral in October, and dozens came to remember a woman who loved to spread joy.
Mr Hoo said their focus is now Cher’s daughter: “It’s difficult to say how do we celebrate this life that was taken so prematurely. But I think it goes into her daughter, and it’s to give her daughter the best life and love, and tell her who her mother was.
“I just wish that we had so much more time.”
A domestic abuser who murdered her “frail” husband and buried him in the garden has been jailed for at least 22 years.
Maureen Rickards caused her husband “unimaginable pain and suffering”, said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
She was found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court last month and today got a life sentence with a minimum of 22 years.
Jeremy Rickards, 65, was found wrapped in bin bags inside a hold-all at the couple’s property in St Martin’s Road, Canterbury, on 11 July last year.
He had five stab wounds to his chest – two of which pierced his heart.
There were also non-fatal injuries sustained about 10 days before his death, as well as other wounds thought to have been weeks old.
Grass cuttings were put over the body in an attempt to hide it, but the judge said police were alerted by an “overpowering odour” that “made them feel ill”.
Kent Police believe he was killed a month earlier and his corpse stored in an attic room cupboard before being moved.
Rickards, 50, told their daughter he had gone to Saudi Arabia for work, but police had no record of him leaving the UK.
The daughter became concerned by the style of messages she received and asked her mother if she’d taken over his phone.
She eventually reported him missing.
Jeremy Rickards: Pic: LinkedIn
The last record of Mr Rickards being alive was when he topped up his phone on 8 June.
CCTV showed his wife of 27 years using his bank card a few weeks later, with the judge saying the cleaning products she bought were probably to clean up the killing.
Rickards was initially arrested for fraud – but officers searched the property and found the body.
The murder weapon has never been found.
Police said the victim was also seen with bruising on his face a few weeks before his death, telling a pub staff member he had been in a car accident.
But video found on his wife’s phone showed her shouting at him and the sounds of her beating him.
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Mr Rickards briefly moved out of home in early June and was seen with numerous injuries at the property he stayed in.
His wife did not attend sentencing, but judge Mr Justice Kerr directed his comments towards her, saying: “Your videos also clearly show you threatening Jeremy, abusing him, using violence on him, and expressing an intention to kill him.
“He was in frail health and largely defenceless against you.”
Detectives said Rickards has never expressed remorse for the killing and tried to blame others.
“This was a horrific murder of a man who we believe had been a supportive husband to his wife, despite her violence towards him,” said Detective Inspector Colin McKeen.
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