A Sydney man has pleaded guilty to making sexual threats to a woman on social media, in what is being seen as a cyber-bullying test case.
Zane Alchin, 25, was charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass and cause offence.
In August last year, he posted a series of abusive and threatening comments to 25-year-old Olivia Melville from Sydney’s south.
A friend of Alchin’s had taken a screenshot of her Tinder profile and posted it on Facebook, where it was shared thousands of times.
After that, Ms Melville received many abusive online messages from strangers.
Alchin had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges and a hearing was expected to begin in Downing Centre Local Court today.
However, the court was told by his lawyer he had changed his plea to guilty.
His case will return to court for sentencing next month.
The case is expected to set a precedent for whether threats made on social media are punishable under existing federal law.
Ms Melville has only just spoken publicly about the abuse she suffered, for fear of provoking a further backlash.
She said she was concerned about losing her job in the performing arts and upsetting her parents, and has called on the Federal Government to fund a campaign to deter people from attacking women online.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Top Comments
Everyone who applauded Catherine Deveny's Facebook ban should note that while her post about men being a cause of violence was found worthy of a ban, Zane Alchin's posts about women being undeserving of equality and making threats of rape were not found to violate Facebook's community standards.
Surely even people who disagree with Deveny's post can recognise it is a serious issue when one of the largest social media platforms in the world more readily silences women speaking out against violence than they do perpetrators of sexual harassment.
I certainly think what this guy wrote deserves a ban. FB should definitely be more consistent.
I'll be very interested to see what kind os sentence he gets - and how many similar cases follow.