KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) — An attorney has told Vincentians to take heed of the message sent by the courts after a man was ordered to pay EC$6,000 to his former girlfriend for unlawfully accessing her phone.

In addition, Rayshawne James,has been further ordered to pay a fine of EC$100 for trespassing on the property of the claimant, Sophie Lawrence, who filed a lawsuit under the Cybercrime Act.

“I hope that this sends a message to those who attempt to illegally access the account of others, those who attempt to send around explicit material, that they are not supposed to have in the first place, that you are mindful of how you treat others in this new and technological era,” attorney Adrian Odle told the
Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Odle said there is “the prevalence of young men who illegally access cellphones of females and doing illegal activities”, and told the court that the matter “is a great breach of privacy”.

Magistrate Bertie Pompey handed down the ruling at Colonarie Magistrate’s Court. The matter was heard in James’ absence.

The complainant told the court that on September 25, 2022 James, uninvited, visited her around midnight but that she asked him to leave.

But as she was calling for a taxi so that James could leave, he pushed his hand through the open window and took the phone from her and ran.

Lawrence said that after several calls to the phone went unanswered, she telephoned Colonarie Police Station, which responded. She made a formal report later that day.

She said she received her phone from Colonarie Police Station some days later but she could not access her business and personal accounts on social media as she had done before the phone was stolen.

Lawrence told the court that the phone had been wiped — all the data had been deleted from it — and that after she received the phone, James contacted her and she told him to stop what he was doing.

She also told the court that James removed explicit photos of her from her phone and sent them to her.