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Man gets two months jail time in Rochester's first revenge porn case

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Dustin Demanche (Rochester Police 2017 photo)

DOVER - The Rochester man indicted for posting nude pictures of his estranged girlfriend on social media more than two years ago will spend two months in jail following a plea deal reached earlier this month in Strafford County Superior Court.

Dustin Demanche, 28, of Lafayette Street, posted the picture on May 27, 2017, which showed the woman as "identifiable from the image itself ... with the image, and (her) intimate parts are exposed in the image; and the defendant knew or should have known that the image was to remain private," the indictment stated.

According to a police affidavit filed in the case, the victim, who was from Lebanon, Maine, first notified police the day after it was posted to complain about the photo.

Since the photo was posted in Rochester and police first responded to the victim at a Rochester address, police here decided to investigate the allegations.

The victim told a responding officer that she had gotten into an argument with her boyfriend over texts and Facebook Messenger and told him she no longer wanted to talk to him.

That's when he told her he was going to "post your shit" and there was nothing police could do about it.

Soon after the victim received a screenshot of the sexually explicit photograph of her that was taken from Demanche's Facebook page, the affidavit states.

According to the affidavit, the picture is clearly of the victim, shirtless and braless, with her breasts in full view.

The victim asserted that the picture had been sent to Demanche for his eyes only and not to be seen by anyone else. She also said that at no time did she ever give Demanche permission to post the photograph, according to the affidavit.

The officer then spoke with Demanche at his home on Lafayette Street. He told the officer he didn't post the photograph following the argument with the victim, the affidavit states. He further stated that he believed he was allowed to because "as soon as the photos were sent to him, they became his property and he could do with that property as he pleases."

He was told that wasn't the case as the photos were intended to be private and placed under arrest.

Rochester Police Capt. Jason Thomas said at the time of the indictment in July 2017 that this was the first such case of revenge porn he can remember.

He added he was unsure how long it took Facebook to take down the image.

As part of the plea deal Demanche's felony dissemination of private sexual images charge was reduced to misdemeanor harassment with a 12-month sentence, all suspended but for the two months he'll serve.

The "revenge porn" statute has only been on the books in New Hampshire for about three years.

Some 34 states have statutes against revenge porn as well as Israel, Germany and Great Britain.

In Maine's first case of "revenge porn" two years ago, a West Bath man accepted a plea deal for a deferred disposition for one year.

Maine passed its "revenge porn" law in 2015.

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