A Sydney bartender who uploaded digitally altered images of dozens of women he knew to a pornography website has been sentenced to nine years in jail.
Andrew Thomas Hayler, 38, was sentenced in the NSW District Court on Friday for 28 counts of using a carriage service to cause offence.
In reaching her decision, Judge Jane Culver said she had placed a “high emphasis” on general deterrence, and agreed with the Crown’s submission that Hayler’s conduct was a “vivid and dangerous illustration” of the way violence could be perpetrated online.
Hayler was jailed with a non-parole period of five-and-a-half years.
Between July 2020 and August 2022, Hayler uploaded hundreds of photographs of 26 women to a now-defunct pornography website, alongside graphic descriptions of rape and violent assault.
He also included identifying details such as their full names, occupations and links to their social media handles.
The women he targeted included former housemates and colleagues, some of whom considered him a “close friend”.
‘Have to live with what has been done’
Hannah Grundy alerted police after she received an anonymous tip-off in an email that photographs of her were circulating on the now-defunct website.
“When I first went to the police three years ago it’s like they had no idea what to do with it,” she said outside court.
“But over the last three years it’s become … such a pervasive issue.
“I’ve seen this kind of behaviour brewing in our community, so it was a battle I was willing to take on.”
Anna Healy, a former close friend of Hayler, said she had only just begun processing the outcome.
“The sentence may have been handed down but we’re going to have to live with what has been done to us for the rest of our lives.”
Lucy Bollinger, who worked with Hayler as a bartender when she was a university student, said she tried unsuccessfully to have photos he posted of her taken down.
“They’re out there forever, there’s nothing I can really do to stop that,” she said.
“[The sentence] is long but I think he deserves it, he deserves every bit of it.”
Nicola Henry, a professor at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with more than 25 years’ experience in the area of sexual violence, called the ruling “unprecedented”.
“There have been very few cases before the courts regarding deepfake image-based abuse,” she said.
“The case of Andrew Hayler is unprecedented as it’s the first time that someone has been charged with sharing digitally altered intimate images, or ‘deepfake pornography’, under Commonwealth telecommunications law.
“So there aren’t really any precedents in terms of sentencing.”
Offending had ‘high degree of recklessness’
Many of the women targeted by Hayler told the ABC they had been advised a term of imprisonment was unlikely to be imposed.
A group of them arrived at the sentencing together and comforted one another as the judge read out excerpts of Hayler’s violent and degrading language.
There was an audible gasp in the courtroom as Judge Culver read out the sentence.
She described Hayler’s offending as having a “high degree of recklessness” and criticised his claim that he “didn’t see it as real world harm …just online harm”.
The case comes amid a rise in the number of cases involving the non-consensual uploading of digitally altered, sexually explicit images online.
Judge Culver described Hayler’s case as an “appropriate vehicle for general deterrence”.
“There is a terrible risk that people accessing these website will somehow normalise the incredibly offensive comments and images portrayed,” she said, noting the potential for “widespread and ongoing harm”.
The court was told that Hayler’s offending began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic at a time of “reduced employment”, and grew from a combination of boredom and substance abuse.
A psychological assessment described him binge-watching pornography from a young age, and an increasing focus on “rough sex and domination”.
The report said Hayler uploaded photos of the women to offset feelings of sexual inferiority and diagnosed him with an “unspecified paraphilic disorder”.
It also placed him at an “above average risk” of sexual reoffending.
Judge Culver said there was evidence of “some contrition” and acknowledged that Hayler was taking part in a rehabilitation program, but said she believed there was “still work to be done [for him] to gain a full insight into the offending”.
Hayler will be eligible for parole in December 2029.
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