John Dunne
A Bath man has been arrested for allegedly stealing nude photos of other people off a cell phone and posting them online.
Bath Police Department arrested 26-year-old John Dunne Jr., who turned himself in at the police station once learning Det. Sgt. Andrew Booth had obtained warrants for his arrest.
The arrest follows a month-long investigation into Dunne’s involvement in two separate incidents, in which he is suspected of having posted nude photos of others.
Dunne was charged with aggravated criminal invasion of computer privacy, a Class C felony, and theft by unauthorized taking of transfer, a Class E misdemeanor.
Police said a second warrant was issued for a Class D misdemeanor charge of unauthorized dissemination of certain private images involving a second alleged victim.
According to a press release, Bath police have been investigating several complaints regarding private images of local people — both minors and adults — on various websites. The majority of these images were posted without the person’s consent, which is a violation of state law banning unauthorized dissemination of certain private images, sometimes referred to as the “revenge porn” law, enacted last year.
In one incident, Dunne is suspected of stealing a photo from a victim’s cell phone and posting it. Certain kinds of phones can be considered computer devices, and removing data from such a device falls under criminal invasion of computer privacy and theft.
The case involving Dunne’s arrest has been one of many investigated by the Bath Police Department.
In other cases, private images were sent to people, such as ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends, who then either posted the pictures themselves or sent the images along to others. These images eventually made their way to a number of different websites, according to police. In some cases, the images can be removed from the sites, in others, they cannot.
“This has caused many people to feel embarrassed and harassed,” the release states.
Bath Police Lt. Robert Savary said that, given the number of similar cases his department has been dealing with recently, police want to warn the public.
“We’re fortunate in this case we were able to identify who stole the image,” Savary said. “But often times that’s the exception rather than the rule in these cases. A lot of these websites are overseas and we just have no control over how they publish and how they get information. The bottom line is safeguard this date and be really careful of it.”
Bath Police Department continues to investigate these incidents and reminds people to safeguard their private images. They also warn against the posting of other people’s private images without their consent.
“We would also like to ask parents to reinforce with their teenage children the implications of sharing these types of photos with others,” police say. “In most cases, once an image makes it onto the Internet, it is very difficult to have it removed. Images regarding minors, if explicit, violate both state and federal sex crime laws.”
Dunne was unable to post a $500 cash bail and was taken to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset.
Bath police were assisted in this investigation by the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Task Force.
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