Australian Capital Territory Current Acts Australian Capital Territory Current Acts(1) A person commits an offence if—
(a) the person threatens to capture or distribute an intimate image of another person; and
(b) the person—
(i) intends the other person to fear that the threat would be carried out; or
(ii) is reckless about whether the other person would fear that the threat would be carried out.
Maximum penalty:
(a) for an aggravated offence—400 penalty units, imprisonment for 4 years or both; or
(b) in any other case—300 penalty units, imprisonment for 3 years or both.
Note Section 72EA (Aggravated offences—pt 3A offences involving family violence) makes provision in relation to an aggravated offence against this section.
(2) In a prosecution for an offence against this section—
(a) a threat may be made by any conduct whether explicit, implicit, conditional, or unconditional; and
(b) it is not necessary to prove that the other person actually feared that the threat would be carried out; and
(c) a person may be found guilty even if carrying out the threat is impossible.
Examples—par (c)
• the image does not exist
• technical limitations prevent the person from capturing or distributing the image
(3) In this section:
"capture intimate image"—a person captures an intimate image of another person if the person captures an image of the other person, with a camera or by any other means, in such a way that—
(a) a recording is made of the image; or
(b) the image is capable of being transmitted in real time, with or without retention or storage, in a physical or electronic form; or
(c) the image is otherwise capable of being distributed.