Clothing boss Rachel Dale, 28, had discovered the graphic images on Alex Montgomery's phone on the day of her birthday – and then shared them with her own company's 2,000 followers warning the victim: “They will be all over the internet tomorrow”.
Although she deleted the pictures from her company's official page after just eight minutes, they had already been circulated on social media forums and internet chatrooms.
The unnamed victim was so devastated by the disclosure she tried to take her own life and was treated in hospital before being allowed home.
At Tameside magistrates’ court in Greater Manchester, Dale who lives in Stalybridge, wept as she admitted an offence of disclosing a private sexual photograph with intent to cause distress under ''Revenge Porn laws.''
But as recruitment boss Mr Montgomery watched from the public gallery, she walked free with a suspended jail term after she claimed the offence occurred after she had been redundant from another clothing firm where she had been a retail buyer.
The court heard that Mr Montgomery, 28, had a brief affair with the woman several years ago before he met Dale and she sent various explicit pictures of herself to him.
Prosecutor Ashley Seetal told JPs: “The images being uploaded of a graphic and intimate area, were shared to a number of group chats and social media chats. The pictures were up for ten minutes, taken down, then immediately re-uploaded the following afternoon.
“The victim did attempt to take her own life, this was a serious attempt and she was taken to hospital and received treatment. The images when posted onto Instagram the popular social media site, were viewable to a number of followers and the wider public.
"There is evidence of serious distress and serious significant psychological harm.”
A probation report read to the court said: “She accepts full responsibility for committing the offence and doesn’t try to minimise the seriousness of the impact.
“She does indicate remorse, she said if she could turn back the clock she would, as she would prefer to deal with it in a different way.
"Four days prior to the offence she says she was made redundant which caused her anxiety.
''But she went out celebrating the night before as it was her birthday and on finding the photo on the phone, she says she acted on impulse with intent of seeking revenge. She said she was quite distressed and said: “there were no other options at the time”.
In mitigation, Dale's defence lawyer Gavin Clarke said: “This is a lady who on 1st October this year was in a relationship with her partner for two and a half years.
“They have a shared account due to their business with the purposes of their business together. At 7.29am she has been awoken by a number of images sent from a third party, from the victim, sent to her partner at the time.
“She sees these images, graphic and explicit images and various and she is devastated, she is mortified. She then texts the victim and pre warns her. "Yes, she does upload those to an Instagram profile. They are up there for 8-9 minutes. They are not up there for eight months, they are not put on a streaming site.
“This young lady, as soon as she calmed down, she realised the error of her way and took it down, that’s the end of the story.
Dale was sentenced to 12 weeks jail suspended for a year and was ordered to pay £200 in costs and surcharges. She did not comment after the hearing.
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