Porn blackmail

The young men, known to some of the affected young women who have been speaking with Newsday, this past week, are claiming to have videos of some of the girls having sex and say they will release them if the girls take steps to identify them.

Many of the females involved are either current or past students of the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) St Augustine campus. They have named at least 13 males who may have shared their photos. Sunday Newsday attempted to contact two of the males named, but the call went to voice mail.

The female victims continue to be depressed and outraged that they could have been so exploited by persons they trusted. Their compromising pictures have become features on the global internet, their pictures being viewed online as far off as Pakistan.

One member of a support group formed following the widespread online publication of the girls’ photos told Sunday Newsday yesterday the victims are claiming that a lot of the young men, some of them said to be scholarship winners, implicated in the matter are now saying they were either hacked, or their laptops, cell- phones, or other electronic communication devices were stolen.

“The girls are backing out because the guys have videos of them having sex, too,” the supporter said.

“I am trying to convince the girls to report the matter to the police because the guys will release the videos, too.” On Friday, one female student who was supportive of one of the guys implicated in the matter said most of the females were now “backing out” because they do not have evidence against the male perpetrators. The police have told Newsday that the Fraud Squad and the Cyber Crime Unit have begun investigations including taking statements from victims. It is expected that they will also be seeking international assistance in their investigations.

UWI principal Professor Clement Sankat has said let the police do their job, and if any student was found in breach of the university’s rules they would be subjected to its disciplinary measures.

Images pop up on mirror sites Meanwhile, the persons, who took down the Triniporn website featuring a number of the local females including underage girls, say that as soon as they take down one site “more is (are) popping up.” “I have taken down seven sites including drop box accounts, but each time we take down one, more is (are) popping up. The servers for these were in the United States and Australia, but their mirror site is in Pakistan which is difficult to access,” he said.

It was mirrored in Pakistan, he said, because the majority of the females, Indo-Trinidadians, are considered “Indians.” A mirror site stores the contents copied from another site. They are useful when the original site generates too much traffic for a single server to support. Once the photos go on the internet, he said, they will continue to circulate off the mirror site.

“The only thing we can target is child porn, and that involves the child giving testimony. And they won’t come forward. Most of the underage girls featured on the list have not told their parents,” he said.

Still relating their stories, one medical student said she sent naked pictures of herself to her then boyfriend (one of 13 males named who had access to the photos and who have been named by victims) and after they split, “he started making fake profiles on Facebook (FB) sharing my pictures with everyone in med sci (medical sciences) to try to humiliate me.” She said, “He put me on several porn sites and has been making money off of me. I made many reports to the police, but now that it is hundreds of girls compared to my one case, they want to finally take action.” She said, “Last week, he made an IG (Instagram) profile mirroring my real profile, so everyone added it thinking it was me.” Another medical sciences student said that last year she stood up for a student in her year group who was being bullied, and she became the victim.

“The guys made me the victim, throwing nasty, cunning insults,” she related.

“They walk around as if they own Mount Hope (site of UWI’s medical faculty). They carry themselves as if they are untouchable. Money talks in this country, so they think they are safe.” While some females have admitted to sharing their nude photos with their ex-boyfriends, some have said their names appeared on the list of 500 girls on the website Triniporn without photos.

They said they were never approached for photos and did not know how their names got on the site.

Hackers must be stopped One UWI graduate, who wants to take legal action against the originators of the site, revealed she was informed that while no photos of her appeared - only her name did - there was a request on the porn site for photos of her to be posted.

She said no one ever approached or asked her for her photos.

“I want to know the names of those involved,” she told Sunday Newsday.

“I want to file defamation of character charges against them. I want their careers disrupted just like mine is being right now.” She continued, “I know that sounds vindictive, but they are not going to learn any other way.” “Regardless of pictures being taken or not,” she said, “other people have no place in your personal life behind closed doors. I am sure that the guys involved have been ruining the lives of girls long before this list was posted. They have to be stopped.” Thankfully, she added, she has the support of family members, friends and some past lecturers at UWI who believe in her.

Meanwhile, someone claiming to be a female UWI student associated with one of the males (name given) involved in the receipt and sharing of photos said in recent times “he was helping the girls to get their photos down.” “Maybe back in the day,” she said, “He was involved in group chats with who did/do things like this. I admit, but I know he has changed.

I saw him feel conscience-stricken, saw the regret and remorse for being a part of what seemed like harmless fun, turned into a ruin of lives.” Asking that his name and picture not be published “until proven”, she said, “people want to get him beat (en) up. It would be a shame for someone to suffer injuries for something that the world is not even sure of.” She did not say whether she was a victim but claimed she had “too many sleepless nights and at one point was on the verge of suicide.” She also claimed that one of the girls who said the male student was the only person who she ever sent photos to, “has backed out” against identifying him as being involved.