YouTuber Chrissy Chambers won her civil revenge porn case against her ex-boyfriend on Wednesday, several years after he uploaded several videos without her knowledge or consent.
She is the first person in the United Kingdom to win a case like that, according to the Daily Dot. To celebrate her hard-won victory, she proposed to longtime girlfriend Bria Kam on the steps of the courthouse.
The victory marks the end of a legal battle for the YouTuber that lasted more than four years when all is said and done. In that time, she has become a prominent face on the scene in the fight for campaigning for more restrictions and punishments for the creation and distribution of revenge porn. After the verdict came down, she said, “[This] should serve as a severe warning to those who seek to extort and harm with revenge porn: you cannot do this with impunity, and you will be held accountable for your actions.” Her case has likely set a precedent for future civil revenge porn cases in the United Kingdom, which is something she can count as a victory in itself.
In September of 2009, Chambers and her then-boyfriend —who cannot be named due to legal stipulations —were together in her house in Atlanta. She was 18 at the time, and planning to break up with him. They both got drunk and he filmed a sexual encounter between them without telling her. Then, in December 2011 and January 2012, he uploaded six separate clips to a free porn site. The clips only showed her face; his was obscured. Three of the clips had titles that contained her full legal name, and two of them contained her age at the time of filming.
Chambers said she first became aware of the existence of the videos when a person who was both a friend and fan got in contact with her and her girlfriend through their joint channel to say “I just want to alert you that someone is spreading these links.” She discovered someone was posting a link in the comments section of all her videos on YouTube. The links came with comments like, “You think Chrissy Chambers is a role model? She’s actually a whore, look at these videos.” When she opened the link to see what it was, she was shocked. She said her horror “felt like [she] was getting hit with a baseball bat.”
I could not be more elated to announce today that I won my revenge porn case and also asked the most incredible girl to marry me. That’s right -WE WON AND BRIA AND I ARE ENGAGED!!!!! I’m the luckiest girl in the world!!!!! pic.twitter.com/2de8xeGmcN
— Chrissy Chambers (@ChrissyChambers) January 17, 2018
The clips had already been in existence for a year by the time she discovered them. She asked the site to remove the clips, but the damage had already been done and the videos had been distributed far and wide across the Internet. She used crowdfunding to try to raise awareness for the problem and to bring a civil case against her ex. Revenge porn was made illegal in the UK in 2015, but because the videos were made in 2009, they were beyond the statute of limitations.
Chambers told the BBC she has been affected by becoming a victim of revenge porn “in every way possible.” She suffers from PTSD, depression, anxiety, night terrors and a serious strain on her relationship. She dealt with alcoholism at the age of 23. Her YouTube channel with Kam also suffered, with fans coming to the conclusion that she was actively involved in pornography and leaving hurtful comments or unsubscribing.
Her win against revenge porn means she can sleep a little easier with justice, and her fiancée, at her side. It also means that her ex has to pay her a significant amount of reparations and has signed over the copyright on the videos to Chambers, so she can make sure any remaining copies are taken down forever. She hopes her success will be a light in the dark for others who are dealing with similar situations.
“Justice can be served,” she said.