A hacker who illegally accessed the private account of Jennifer Lawrence and released naked photos of the actress has been sentenced to eight months in prison.
George Garofano, 26, hacked into the Apple iCloud accounts of 240 people, including the ‘Hunger Games’ actress, as well as other stars and internet users.
Much of their private information and personal photos were then spread around the internet.
Garofano was one of four people charged in the 2014 hacking scandal, which also resulted in private photos of actress Kirsten Dunst and model Kate Upton going public.
At the time, Jennifer Lawrence described the hacking as the equivalent to a sex crime, and called for tougher laws.
On Wednesday, a federal judge at a US district court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, ordered Garofano to serve the prison term followed by three years of supervised release.
He had pleaded guilty in April, admitting he had obtained the victim’s usernames and passwords after posing as a member of Apple’s online security personnel.
In a sentencing memo to the court, the prosecution wrote: “Mr Garofano’s offense was a serious one. He illegally hacked into his victims’ online accounts, invaded their privacy, and stole their personal information, including private and intimate photos. He did not engage in this conduct on just one occasion. He engaged in this conduct 240 times over the course of 18 months.
“Not only did Mr Garofano keep for himself the photographs he stole, he disseminated them to other individuals. He may have also sold them to others to earn ‘extra income’.”
It added: “In committing this offense, Mr Garofano acted in complete and utter disregard for the impact on his victims’ lives.”
His defense representation insisted that Garofano had cleaned up his act since the hacking, which started when he was still at college and that he had already suffered serious consequences.
“He now stands before the court having matured, accepting responsibility for his actions and having not been in trouble with the law since,” defense attorney Richard Lynch wrote. “There is nothing to suggest that he would ever engage in this or any other criminal conduct in the future.”
The three other hackers have already been sentenced, with terms of between nine months and 18 months in prison.
In an interview with Vanity Fair following the leak of her private photos, Jennifer hit back at the hackers responsible.
She told the magazine: “Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this. It does not mean that it comes with the territory.
“It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world.”
Explaining why it took her so long to publicly address the stolen nude photos, she said: “Every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry. I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for. I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years.”
