‘Evil’ man put victim ‘through Hell’ by posting ‘intimate video’ on social media

Deputy District Judge Chris Holmes was speaking at Ballymena Magistrates Court on Thursday (April 21) where he jailed Cathan Quinn for 10 months.

Quinn (25), with an address listed as Wesleyann Mews in Magherafelt, admitted sending ‘by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character’...posting an ‘intimate video’ of a female on Twitter.

The defendant also pleaded guilty to ‘threatening to post intimate videos and photographs’ of the female on social media and a third charge of ‘threatening to share intimate photographs and video’ of her.

The charges relate to 2020.

A prosecutor said a female told police a Twitter account called ‘bigdaddypaypig’ had followed her and “offered £500 for explicit images of herself”.

The court heard after initially ignoring messages the female then “agreed to send some photos - three photos and a short video of herself in her underwear - to the unknown individual. Her face was never shown”.

The prosecutor added: “She quickly regretted doing that and stated that she didn’t want any money from the individual and blocked both Twitter and Snapchat accounts”.

She then received messages from a mobile number, “unknown to her,” threatening to publish the photos on Twitter and make “family members” aware of the images.

The court was told at 7pm on February 24, 2020, the “short video which she had sent was then posted on a Twitter account ‘bigdaddycontentking’ but it was then quickly removed by the website administrators”.

The prosecutor said it was of the female “in her underwear” and the judge said: “It was one of a private nature which she wouldn’t want put out there in public”.

The PSNI obtained subscriber details for the phone number and it identified Quinn and he made full admissions to police.

The prosecutor said the messages from Quinn to the female were “menacing” as he was “threatening if she doesn’t reply to him then he’ll post images and he basically gives her a countdown”.

A defence barrister said the defendant accepted the incident was “entirely unacceptable”.

The lawyer said with the guilty pleas and a Restraining Order “perhaps the injured party will be able to move on from this incident”.

He added the behaviour occurred at at time when Quinn “was exhibiting a number of incidents of unusual behaviour”.

The defence lawyer said the defendant had an “ongoing case” at court in Dungannon involving similar allegations relating to three people around the same timeframe and it is set to go to the Crown Court.

Judge Holmes said something that “deeply troubled” him regarding the Ballymena Court case was that the “police took the view not to seize his phone or his computers on the basis of ‘there was likely to be nothing of evidential value found thereon’.

The judge said that had been a “ridiculous decision” and “goodness knows” what could have been found.

He said the police approach “could only be really, naivety, or inexperience on behalf of the investigating officers or sheer laziness but it is not competent”.

The defence lawyer said the defendant’s phone was seized in relation to the Dungannon Court case.

The barrister said Quinn was “not in a good place” two years ago. Efforts were made to get to the “bottom of” his offending and after seeing a psychiatrist there was a diagnosis of ADHD.

The court was told the defendant is in full time employment and has “positive” support from his mother and is taking “proper medication”.

Jailing Quinn for 10 months, Judge Holmes said in 10 years as a judge “you are absolutely the most serious case that I have ever sentenced on”.

The judge asked: “Who in their right mind directed this case in the Petty Sessions? The public, I have no doubt, will be absolutely horrified that this case is in the Petty Sessions, as in fact am I.”

He said the defendant was being prosecuted in “totally the wrong court” which was “appalling” and said Quinn should have been charged with blackmail through the Crown Court and “be getting five years plus”.

Judge Holmes told Quinn: “What you actually did was blackmail, pure and simple sexual predatory blackmail.”

“You set yourself up on a Twitter site as ‘bigdaddypaypig’ and you enticed in this particular lady. A young lady who responded to messages you put out there in relation to £500 for intimate photos. That was naive of her but she did it.

“You came back to her on a number of occasions and eventually she in fact did send you a number of reasonably intimate photographs and a small video. Almost immediately she regretted that.”

The judge said the female then contacted Quinn saying ‘I want nothing to do with this’ “but the bottom line was you had her. You had succeeded in doing precisely what you set out to do. You now had intimate photographs of a vulnerable victim”.

Judge Holmes said Quinn had messaged the female “along the lines of” ‘I am in charge now’ and when she “tried to get away from you” the defendant then threatened to send the messages to people she knew before putting a video up on a social media site.

“This is classic predatory blackmail. You are a blackmailing predator and you should be in prison for as long as it is possible to put you there. It was said to me you were having difficulties exhibiting odd behaviour at the time. There is nothing odd about your behaviour, it is just evil.”

He said Quinn had asked the female ‘Do you want me to humiliate you?’ and the judge added: “It’s horrendous. You must have put this young lady through hell”.

The judge said the maximum sentence he could give for the charges in the Magistrates Court was six months in prison but said he was also activating a four months suspended sentence Quinn had for driving matters to make 10 months.

Judge Holmes said another “problem” was that the Sex Offenders’ Register did not apply with the charges.

A Restraining Order regarding the victim was put in place for five years but Judge Holmes said he would have liked to have been able to make it “for life”.

He also banned the defendant from “making any posts on social media” for five years saying he believed he was a “high risk” of re-offending.

The judge agreed to bail for appeal but refused to release Quinn pending appeal.