For his “abusive” conduct and his “revenge strategy” of posting personal information and intimate images, a man was ordered to compensate his victim to the tune of $ 65,000.
Superior Court judge Pierre Béliveau was not kind to Ronald Butzlaff, an American citizen, in his decision rendered a few days ago.
“The defendant not only let off steam in a moment of anger, but planned his actions for months and even years with the aim of harming the plaintiff. The defendant showed no sign that he was going to make amends for the damage he caused, or even take action to shut down the websites he created ”.
The victim in this case, who cannot be identified, is also of American nationality, but lives in Quebec where he studies and teaches at a university. Previously, he offered his professional services as a massage therapist.
It was within the framework of this work that he met Ronalf Butzlaff. The latter called on his services a few times when he was in Canada. Their massage therapist-client relationship developed into a friendship and, on occasion, they had sex, the judge sums up.
“Insistent and obsessive”
During a trip in July 2018, the victim said she understood that the defendant’s expectations about the nature of their relationship did not coincide with his own. He then saw fit to clarify his intentions. The defendant reacted aggressively and possessively towards the victim, the latter reported at trial.
In the fall, Mr. Butzlaff’s behavior became “insistent and obsessive,” reads the judgment.
He started sending threatening messages to the victim from anonymous accounts and created an email address with the victim’s name through which he sent her pictures of himself, naked, threatening to distribute them.
Later, he created a fake profile on an online dating site, where men started ringing the doorbell of the victim.
He then put together a website containing intimate and sexual images of the victim, as well as a lot of personal information. Building on his momentum, he sent emails to his college colleagues, including his thesis supervisor, inviting them to check out his online site. Ronald Butzlaff also showed up in his classroom while he was teaching.
The victim’s family was also targeted. The defendant texted the victim’s mother inviting her to see the web page containing the explicit photos of her son, as well as a phone message to both of his parents.
The Immigration Department was contacted with the “obvious aim” of harming its immigration process in the country, adds the magistrate.
Even if the defendant did not use his real name in all these steps, the victim can identify him as the sender. The messages were sent from a newly created email address that he also used to respond to the victim’s requests for him to stop threatening, the judge wrote. The defendant did not appear at the trial.
The victim contacted police across the country and the United States, including the FBI, on several occasions – but to no avail.
Distress
All of his actions left the Applicant in a state of panic and anxiety and he suffered from insomnia for quite a while. He was “unable to carry out some of his professional activities and has lost interest in life”, we can read in the decision.
When he learned that his parents had been contacted, the victim felt “anxiety and shame and began to have thoughts of suicide.”
The evidence presented by the victim convinced the Tribunal that it was the Respondent who created the website on behalf of the victim, that he was the author of numerous anonymous and harassing emails sent to third parties and that he created fake profiles on behalf of the victim.
“By doing this, the defendant intended to tarnish the reputation of the plaintiff.”
Its very wide dissemination of images of the victim and other personal information clearly violates their fundamental rights, including respect for their privacy, psychological integrity, dignity, honor and reputation.
As compensation, the judge awarded him $ 25,000 for his moral damages “for his significant psychological and emotional damage”.
To this he adds $ 9,500 to compensate for his loss of salary when he was unable to work and 30,000 in punitive damages given the intentional nature of the acts committed.