A man has been sent to prison after posting a private photograph of a former lover on the internet.

Not only did Joel Maplesden send the image to the family of his victim but he then heartlessly posted it on a public forum and invited men to contact her for sex.

The 22-year-old from Newcastle Hill, Ramsgate, left the woman feeling “mortified and betrayed”, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Maplesden sent so many vile messages to the former girlfriend that they filled nine and a half pages of A4, said prosecutor Mary Jacobson.

She told Judge James O’Mahony that the victim’s family felt “shock and outrage” after receiving the messages, which were accompanied by more disgusting suggestions.

Maplesden also told a family member he was going to “cut the ex-lover’s face open” the next time they met.

Maplesden, who admitted the charges of posting the image out of revenge and harassment, later told police that he was drunk and had no intention of carrying out his threat.

But the judge told him that “revenge porn” “has a tendency to destroy someone’s personality”.

“And you did this because you were jealous, sending her the most awful messages, ones which were violent, nasty and extremely unpleasant. She now feels she could never ever again trust a man...” - Judge James O'Mahony

He added: “You left your victim absolutely miserable and caused her real psychological damage and from which she may never recover.

“And you did this because you were jealous, sending her the most awful messages, ones which were violent, nasty and extremely unpleasant. She now feels she could never ever again trust a man.”

Maplesden’s lawyer, Kerry Waitt, told the court: “He is an immature young man and he accepts the offence is so serious that it crosses the custody threshold”, to which the judge retorted: “By a country mile!”

He jailed Maplesden for a total of two years and issued an indefinite order banning him from contacting his victim or her family - or risk another prison sentence.