Key Points
- Andrew Thomas Hayler has been sentenced to nine years in jail for posting images of women on a pornographic site.
- He posted photos of friends, colleagues and housemates and superimposed their faces onto sexually explicit images.
- Judge Jane Culver said Hayler’s actions had caused “profound harm” to the victims.
This story contains references to image-based abuse.
A Sydney bartender who took photos from a string of women’s private social media accounts and shared them on a pornography website has been jailed for nine years.
Andrew Thomas Hayler, 38, posted photos of close friends, colleagues and housemates and encouraged people to share fantasies about the victims alongside his desires to sexually assault the women.
Victims revealed the unnerving and disturbing impact of being told their images had been shared in that way, with many fearing for their safety after learning of the sickening threats on the site.
Hayler also superimposed the faces of his victims onto sexually explicit images and posted them on the same site.
He pleaded guilty to 28 counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass and offend, telling a court his offending was an “outlet for a part of his psyche he didn’t want”.
Along with posting the images, Hayler also made comments such as “she is a future rape victim”, “I am closing in on this sl–“, “I now know where she lives” and “let’s claim her as ours”.
The website had more than 300,000 followers.
The offending occurred between 2020 and 2022 and involved 26 victims, only two of whom Hayler did not know.
During an earlier hearing, Hayler said he published the women’s names as he found it empowering, but he also thought his offending resembled “a tree falling in the forest”.
Judge Jane Culver dismissed any notion that Hayler had not caused a huge degree of hurt through his actions.
“The widespread degradation of females could not have been lost on the offender,” she told Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court during his sentencing.
“To post articles of that nature is to unleash the potential for such widespread and ongoing harm to a very large part of our community.”
One victim said it was “unnerving to realise so many people saw me in these humiliating positions”, and that she felt “sick” and feared for her safety as Hayler had revealed her identity online.
Another said she was in a state of shock when she learned Hayler had bragged about knowing her home address.
“The common theme is they have lost a sense of security, privacy, memories once recorded in images with happy contexts, and most of all a sense of themselves and their former lives,” Culver said.
“That is a profound harm.”
The court heard Hayler was offending right up until his arrest in August 2022.
He immediately cooperated with police, providing passwords so they could search his devices.
Culver jailed Hayler for nine years, with a non-parole period of five and a half years.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual abuse, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, or visit . In an emergency, call 000.