They are now subject to judicial information, and the prosecution requested this Tuesday morning their placement under judicial control in the case of intimate videos attributed to Benjamin Griveaux. Piotr Pavlenski and his partner Alexandra de Taddeo risk two years in prison and a fine of 60,000 euros, according to article 226-2-1 of the Penal Code which punishes "revenge porn". This article, created by a law of October 7, 2016, punishes the capture or dissemination of "words or images of a sexual nature" without the consent of the person concerned. Before 2016, the penalty incurred was only one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.
What about the facts? According to the Ministry of Justice, contacted by Le Parisien, there were 91 convictions for this crime in 2017 and 192 in 2018 (the data for 2019 are not yet known). This number has therefore more than doubled from one year to the next.
Some prison terms
As with other crimes, the punishment incurred in these types of cases differs from that actually imposed. But "the difference between the two is not significant," judges lawyer Eric Morain, who defends or defends ten victims of "revenge porn". In other words, justice is neither more nor less severe for this type of offense than for another.
The Chancellery does not have the “average” sentence, either for the amount of the fine or for the number of months in prison. But, by browsing the local press and the legal search engine Doctrine, we realize that only a financial penalty of a few hundred or thousands of euros is pronounced in the majority of the files.
If it is also sometimes accompanied by a prison sentence, it is most often suspended. In Lyon, in January 2019, a 52-year-old man was, for example, given a suspended prison sentence. The same is true for another individual convicted of having posted intimate photos and videos of his ex-girlfriend in Gironde, in May 2018.
Many victims do not file complaints
To find a firm prison sentence in a media case, we have to go back to the period prior to the strengthening of sanctions at the end of 2016. In February 2016, a young man had been sentenced to six months firm (with a warrant) by the court of Dunkirk, relates for example the Dunkirk lighthouse. In Montpellier, on November 15, 2016, another had been sentenced to three years in prison, one of which was firm. But he was also prosecuted for acts of violence with a knife, as indicated in the full decision on Doctrine. Because, of course, everything also depends on the profile of the accused and his possible criminal record. In addition to the intimate videos in the Griveaux case, Piotr Pavlenski is also also being prosecuted for the violent brawl that occurred on December 31, 2019.
The fact remains that these “revenge porn” convictions leave aside all the victims who do not file a complaint, out of fear or shame. Especially since some of them are minors and sometimes college students, with the widespread use of social networks among young people. This is what makes the specificity of this type of offense, more than the sentence pronounced, assures Eric Morain: "The number of victims who file a complaint and the number of actual procedures are very low, compared to the number of facts . "
