After meeting a man on Tinder and sending him intimate photos of herself, a woman suddenly found herself at risk of being exposed to her entire Facebook friends list - unless she sent the man a video of herself masturbating.
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The 21-year-old had become a victim of 31-year-old Wodonga man Ashleigh Hemming.
He appeared in Wodonga Magistrates' Court this week to plead guilty to his criminal charges.
Hemming was living with his mother in Wodonga last year when he matched with the young woman on Tinder and they started messaging from April 18 onwards.
They moved their conversation to the Facebook Messenger phone app, when he asked to see pictures of her genitalia.
They both shared intimate photographs with each other.
Then Hemming took things a step further when he asked to see a video of the woman masturbating.
That was when the threats started.
The court heard he sent her multiple messages with threats such as "you wouldn't want me to send these pics and screenshots to your friends list, would you?".
"I won't send them to anyone if you are nice to me."
Hemming also warned her not to go to the police.
The victim tried to explain that she could not send the video to him immediately and asked why he was threatening to expose her.
He then stopped and claimed the threats were just a joke.
"What, I'm joking haha. I like I would do this to anyone," Hemming wrote to the victim.
But the matter was reported to police.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Wayne Taylor said when arrested, Hemming initially denied making the threats or knowing anyone by the victim's name.
"It might have occurred when he was using GHB because he doesn't remember any of it," he said.
Magistrate Ian Watkins initially wanted to deal with the case on the day, but said Hemming had serious prior convictions for similar offending.
He was at risk of serving part of the maximum sentence of one year in jail.
Hemming appeared in court this week, but did not say anything and just nodded when the magistrate said he would allow time before handing down a sentence.
The case was adjourned until June 25 to allow his lawyers to get a psychological report.
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