14 DAY TRIAL // Karen “Gary” Kazaryan, from Glendale, California, has been sentenced to five years in prison for hacking into the online accounts of at least 350 women. The 27-year-old stole explicit or embarrassing photos from their accounts and used them to blackmail the victims.
According to the Los Angeles Daily News, Kazaryan wrote a letter to the judge, blaming his actions on depression and the use of marijuana.
“The lines between digital life and reality were blurred and out of control for me,” he wrote in the letter to the judge.
The man admitted hacking into the Facebook, Skype and email accounts of his victims. He has also admitted blackmailing them into showing their bodies on Skype, or via photographs. Authorities have uncovered a total of 3,000 explicit images. Not all of the 350 victims have been identified.
Some of the women he targeted refused to give in to blackmail, so he posted the compromising pictures on their Facebook accounts.
The prosecution highlighted the fact that none of the 10 victims who they had spoken to accepted to make a statement to the court because of the emotional impact. However, the defense argued that some of the victims continued to chat online with Kazaryan.
US District Judge George H. King interrupted the defense attorney to point out the fact that the same women made some “very disturbing pleas to please stop.” The judge has noted that the man caused “great fear” and that his conversations were “quite threatening.”
Kazaryan was arrested in January 2013 and charged with 15 counts of computer intrusion and 15 counts of aggravated identity theft. He was taken into custody immediately after the judge sentenced him.