A "revenge porn" perpetrator will not go to jail for sharing intimate images on his then-partner's Facebook page when he discovered her alleged infidelity.
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The 36-year-old Canberra man, who has not been named in order to protect the victim's identity, was sentenced on Friday to two good behaviour orders.
The ACT Magistrates Court heard that on March 14, the man and his then-partner had a discussion about whether their relationship should continue.
He then went into their bedroom and later emerged, calling the woman "slut" and "whore" while saying the relationship was over.
The victim noticed her personal phone in the man's pocket and tried to retrieve it, but the man grabbed her wrists and pushed her up against a wall, on which she hit her head.
She left their home and received a text on her work phone asking if she knew intimate images had been posted on her Facebook page.
The woman asked the friend who had notified her to show the post to police.
Officers arrested the man that same night and he later pleaded guilty to common assault and non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
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The man's lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith, told the court on Friday that the man admitted going through his then-partner's phone and taking screenshots of WhatsApp messages between the woman and another man.
Mr Kukulies-Smith said his client had intentionally posted the screenshots to the woman's Facebook page, knowing they showed messages "of a sexualised nature".
One of the screenshots contained a picture of the woman's genitalia, but Mr Kukulies-Smith said the man had not realised that at the time.
He said the man had been alerted to the presence of that picture on Facebook within minutes of it being posted, and had deleted the post immediately.
Mr Kukulies-Smith said the man was "not at his best" when he committed the offences, but few people would be upon discovering their partner's alleged infidelity.
The man had never tried to deny what he had done, Mr Kukulies-Smith told the court, and had sought counselling and medication for depression.
Prosecutor Libby Sutton said it was accepted that the man had not intentionally uploaded the picture of his then-partner's genitalia.
But she said he had "taken an unjustifiable risk" and acted recklessly when he knew the screenshots he was posting to the woman's Facebook page were of messages with a sexual flavour.
Ms Sutton said the man had chosen to upload the screenshots to the woman's own Facebook page in a move calculated to ensure that her family, friends and acquaintances would see them.
She said he had captioned the post with "derogatory" references to the woman.
The woman did not provide a victim impact statement, but Ms Sutton said it was easy to imagine how much pain she must have felt at the "gross breach" of her privacy.
Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker agreed, saying anyone would be "hugely embarrassed" to have their genitalia so publicly exposed without their consent.
In sentencing the offender, Ms Walker took into account a number of letters written in his support. She placed particular weight on a reference from another of the man's former partners, who wrote that he had never been violent towards her.
Ms Walker accepted that the man was remorseful and that he had taken positive steps to address the reasons for his offending.
She said he had a "fairly extensive" criminal history in his youth, but these offences were his first in 12 years and appeared to be "an aberration" for a man who had otherwise turned his life around.
Ms Walker imposed 18-month good behaviour orders on both charges, and directed that the sentences be served concurrently.
The non-consensual distribution of intimate images of adults can carry a jail term of up to three years, while common assault has a maximum penalty of two years behind bars.
