Mother avoids jail after sending revenge porn of son's ex to her dad

2023-01-19

Mother, 41, avoids jail after sending explicit revenge porn photos and video of her 23-year-old son’s ex to girl’s father

Lynda Collyer, 41, of Monkton Deverill, Yorkshire, was sent the photos by her son
Matthew Cooper-Collyer convicted of threatening to disclose the private images
His mother pleaded guilty to same charge and two accounts of sending footage
The son said he wanted to send the photos because his ex wanted to ruin his life
Ms Collyer was ‘incredibly worried’ after victim made allegations against her son

A mother has avoided jail after sending explicit revenge porn photos and videos of her 23-year-old son’s ex to the girl’s father.

Lynda Collyer, 41, of Monkton Deverill, Yorkshire, was sent the footage by her son Matthew Cooper-Collyer, 23, after his relationship came to an end.

The ‘angry and embittered’ son was convicted of threatening to disclose private sexual photographs with the intent of causing distress.

Meanwhile, his mother pleaded guilty to the same charge, as well as two counts of sending electronic communication to cause distress to the victim’s parents.

Lynda Collyer and her son Matthew Cooper-Collyer attended Winchester Crown Court, where they avoided jail after sending explicit revenge porn photos and videos

The defendant had recently split up with his girlfriend when his mother suggested in a Facebook conversation that he send the images to her, which he agreed to do, heard Winchester Crown Court .

Collyer, a carer for the elderly with Alzheimer’s, also posted ‘happy birthday’ followed by the victim’s initials and said she would post the images so people could ‘see it all’.

Prosecutor Helen Easterbrook said Collyer wrote that she would ‘give her drama like she loves’ and, referring to the images, added: ‘Love them, perfect shots, you should have been a photographer.’

Cooper-Collyer shared two intimate photographs and a video with his mother, who then sent them to the victim’s father – on the day before her birthday to ‘distress’ her, Ms Easterbrook said.

The son told his trial that he wanted to send the pictures because she said the victim was going to ‘ruin’ his life by making false accusations against him.

Cooper-Collyer shared two intimate photographs and a video of his ex with his mother, who then sent them to the victim’s father. [File image]

Collyer also sent messages threatening to disclose the images to the ex-girlfriend’s mother and showed no remorse, the court heard.

The mother and son were sentenced to six months in custody, suspended for 18 months, and given restraining orders banning them from contacting their victim or her parents.

Judge Gordon Bebb KC told them: ‘In the aftermath of that break-up there was acrimony. I have no doubt when you committed these offences you were both motivated by revenge and the wish to case distress to the victim.’

Rhianna Fricker, defending Collyer, said her client regrets her actions, which she said were carried out as a ‘protective’ mother.

She said Collyer, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, was ‘incredibly worried’ after the victim made allegations against her son – having made claims against three ex-boyfriends.

Ms Fricker said: ‘It’s not a simple case of not feeling remorse. If she could go back, with hindsight being 20/20, she wouldn’t have acted in the way she did.

‘She is a mother of three children. She is a very protective mother. Her main focus in sending those messages was she was worried that these proceedings [against her son] were going to go further and land him in a lot of trouble when she – his mother – felt he hadn’t done anything wrong.’

Ms Fricker added that Collyer’s actions were ‘completely out of character’.

Andrew Stone, representing Cooper-Collyer, said his client had been dominated by his mother and found it difficult to say no to her.

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