Israeli student indicted for hacking into teacher’s tablet, distributing her intimate photos

Minor-defendant charged with criminal violation of privacy and sexual harassment.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: DECEMBER 23, 2015 06:24
Gavel [Illustrative] (photo credit: INIMAGE)
Gavel [Illustrative]
(photo credit: INIMAGE)
The Southern District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed an indictment with the Ashkelon Juvenile Court against a resident of the city for snooping in his teacher’s tablet files and mass distributing her intimate photos electronically.
A Justice Ministry statement said the incident occurred on September 7, 2014. The student, who is now 18 years old, was a minor at the time, thus his name is under gag order.
The state prosecution is charging the minor defendant with criminal violation of privacy and sexual harassment.
It closed the case against three other, more ancillary suspects for lack of sufficient evidence to convict.
The Justice Ministry’s statement described how the defendant entered his classroom to find that another student was holding their teacher’s tablet. He took the tablet from the other student, and began exploring the tablet’s files without permission from the teacher, as the rest of the class gathered around him. The defendant noticed her intimate photos, which had been uploaded to the tablet without her knowledge by a synchronization between the tablet and her cellphone. The defendant used his cellphone to take pictures of the intimate photos and sent them to his friends via WhatsApp.
At some later point, the photos were disseminated electronically to all of the school’s students and throughout Ashkelon. As a result, the teacher suffered great harm, even taking a leave of absence from work until she recovered.
The ministry’s statement said that invading the privacy of the teacher’s device and distributing the sexual photos are criminal actions that humiliated and disgraced the teacher.