A 25-year-old woman from Akwesasne has been charged in connection with a revenge porn case that triggered a probe by Ontario’s police watchdog over how the investigation was handled.
Cornwall, Ont., police issued statement a Wednesday saying the woman was arrested Tuesday, charged with one count of distributing intimate images without consent and released with a court date of Nov. 27.
“It is alleged the woman distributed intimate pictures of her ex-girlfriend and police were contacted to investigate,” said the statement.
The police statement said the name of the charged woman would not be released to protect the identity of the victim.
The victim, Brooke Garlow, has spoken to CBC News for two published stories about her case. Garlow gave CBC News permission to continue to identify her.
Garlow shared charge documents with CBC News that identified the woman as Presley Mitchell, who lives in Akwesasne, a Mohawk community that sits next to Cornwall and straddles the Canada-U.S. border.
“It hurts because I spent five years of my life with somebody who I loved,” said Garlow, in a telephone interview Wednesday.
“I don’t want to sit here and say I am happy.”
Garlow told CBC News previously she had sent intimate images to an ex-partner more than a year ago.
Spread of images upended life
The images began to spread across the Facebook app Messenger on July 23.
Garlow called Cornwall police the same day, but investigators did not contact Facebook to remove the images until Aug. 7, according to police email correspondence provided to CBC News.
Garlow said the images spread to thousands of people during the two weeks it took for police to act, upending her life and forcing her to shop out of town to avoid running into strangers who had seen her photos.
The images were also sent to her children’s Facebook friends. Even her children’s school bus driver received the images.
A screen shot of the second Facebook account created to spread Brooke Garlow’s intimate images. (Submitted by Brooke Garlow)
Two Facebook accounts were primarily responsible for spreading the images. The accounts were not owned by Mitchell, said Garlow.
“There are still more charges to come,” she said.
Garlow filed a complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) over the Cornwall police’s handling of her case. OIPRD opened a file and ordered the police to investigate how it handled Garlow’s case.
A Cornwall police spokesperson told CBC News earlier this week that the service would co-operate with the OIPRD.