Renowned composer avoids jail for uploading doctored photos of women to adult sites
The 2012 winner of the BBC Young Composer of the Year competition has been given a suspended sentence for uploading doctored photographs of women to pornographic sites without their permission.
University of Cambridge graduate Alexander Woolf, 26, from Coxs End in Over, took images of 15 clothed victims from social media and then posted them on pornographic sites and social media threads with sexually explicit and derogatory comments.
None of the original pictures were pornographic or indecent, but he asked users to use image manipulation software to put his victims’ heads on to the bodies of pornographic actresses, which were then posted on adult websites.
An anonymous email in January 2021 alerted one of Woolf’s victims, warning her that it had been found on the site Reddit and, in March, on a pornographic website, without her consent.
The anonymous user suggested Woolf, who also appeared as a contestant on Mastermind, was responsible.
The victim found other pictures posted by Woolf and alerted other victims, who said his actions caused significant upset, distress and suffering.
Varinder Hayre, district Crown prosecutor at the CPS, said: “Woolf’s behaviour is severely depraved and reprehensible and has had a drastic impact on his victims.
“We will always look to prosecute the sexual exploitation of victims and this prosecution is a clear message that this morally repugnant action will not be tolerated.
“I am especially pleased that Woolf has to delete all these pictures from his devices and will not be able to contact his victims ever again.”
Woolf admitted 15 charges of sending by means of a public electronic communications network messages that were grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing nature.
He was given 20 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Monday (August 16).
Woolf was also ordered to undertake a rehabilitation activity for 40 days, 40 sessions of a court-accredited sexual offending programme and 150 hours of unpaid work.
He must pay each of his 15 victims £100 compensation, as well as £85 costs and £128 victim surcharge. All victims’ pictures have to be deleted from his devices and he was given an indefinite restraining order prohibiting any contact with the victims.
Woolf won the BBC Young Composer competition in 2012, while attending Hills Road Sixth Form College. He went on to attend St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first in music in 2016, before a master’s degree in composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
His music has been played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, and performed in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Snape Maltings Concert Hall and Maida Vale Studios, as well as in Holland, Germany and the United States.
His Fanfare opened the 2012 International Olympic Committee session to accompany the entrance of The Princess Royal.
The CPS said it takes all crimes of violence against women and girls, including such harassment, very seriously.
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