19-y-o from St Vincent cries herself to sleep after sex video is leaked

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – A 19-year-old store attendant says she has “suicidal” tendencies and that she cries herself to sleep after a man posted a sex video of her on social media he claimed had been sent to him by another woman.

Last Friday, Senior Magistrate Tamika Mckenzie sentenced Jayfornia Holder, 24, and Otis Gloster, 29,  to one year in prison, suspended for two years, after they both pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal access to a computer system and a charge of violation of privacy, sexual harassment by electronic communication and cyberbullying respectively.

The court gave Holder until March 31, 2026, to pay EC$20,000 in fines or spend one year in prison, while Gloster has until June 30, 2026, to pay EC$25,000 or face the same prison term.

The store clerk said the incident “has me feeling suicidal” and besides speaking to her fiancé, she has received no other help or counselling.

“I cry myself to sleep at nights,” she told the court, adding “sometimes, when I walk the street, I have to have my head down because one time I was walking the street and a guy came up to me and said he wants to do me what the guy was doing me in the video”.

The 19-year-old told the court that she wanted an apology for what was done to her. She was one of three women who told the court about the impact the leaked videos had on them. They said the videos had caused them embarrassment, public harassment and affected their relationships with their significant others.

One of the women, a 22-year-old assistant teacher, told the court that she cannot walk the street in peace since the video was leaked.

“Men have been walking behind me and telling me to give them piece,” she told the court, adding that the father of her 26-month-old son has turned his back on them since the video began circulating.

“When I walk the street after the video was leaked, I have my head down seeing that the video is leaked and everybody has the video. I felt very depressed,” she said, adding she would like something to be posted on the internet to say the video was “a long-time video”.

The third virtual complainant who testified before the court,  said she was surprised when she received a call from her boyfriend saying a video of her having sex was circulating.

“And then I told my boyfriend to send me the video… When I watched the video, I recognised the person in the background,” the 23-year-old sales clerk said, adding that she called the person and asked him why a sex video of them was circulating on the internet.

The sales clerk further told the court that the person with whom she was having sex in the video called her and said it was his girlfriend who had leaked the videos.

She said when she questioned him as to why he still had videos of them, since they had moved on, he replied  "he keeps them for memories."

“I told him that makes no sense…Up to this day, I am not ok. I have not slept well or eaten well because it is like I just have to remember every day I come work, somebody talking about the video,” the woman told the court.

“And my boyfriend also, he has been accusing me of the video being recent,” ’she said, adding “I want them to be charged for this. I want them to apologise and tell the truth about who leaked the video”.

The videos ended up in the public domain after Holder found them on her boyfriend’s phone and sent them to Gloster, her co-worker. Gloster then posted them to his WhatsApp status and sent them to people who requested them.

The magistrate said she found it extremely aggravating that Holder had deleted from her boyfriend’s phone the videos of them having sex but shared with her co-worker the videos of her boyfriend having sex with other women.

She said that she would refer the virtual complainants to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to arrange counselling for them.

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