A British man could spend as much as a year in prison after admittedly hacking into the private Facebook account of a pop star and actress, meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Dharun Ravi, who used a webcam to record his Rutgers University roommate in an intimate moment, will spend just 30 days in jail.
The private Facebook account hacked by Garreth Crosskey, as the Sun first reported, belonged to Selena Gomez, a singer and actress who is in a relationship with teen pop sensation and ‘Never Say Never’ star, Justin Bieber.
“Today’s result should act as a deterrant to any individuals thinking of participating in this type of criminal activity,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Ravi’s case is obviously the much more serious one. In September 2010, shortly after learning that Ravi had recorded and subsequently posted on the Internet his sexual encounter with another man, Tyler Clementi took his own life by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. The incident garnered an enormous amount of media attention and has been one of the driving forces behind the movement to increase awareness about cyber-bullying.
The New York Times reports that Ravi was found guilty of all 15 counts against him, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Ravi was not charged with causing Clementi’s death. He could have spent as much as 10 years in prison, and the New York Times reported that onlookers were shocked by the relatively light sentence.
Ravi’s sentence also includes 300 hours of community service, three years’ probation, a $10,000 probation fee that will be donated to help victims of bias crimes, and he has been ordered to attend counseling about both cyber-bullying and alternative lifestyles.
