A Lytham man has been jailed for 29 months following an investigation by Cumbria Constabulary’s Cyber and Digital Crime Unit.

Sam Partington, 30, of Cecil Street, Lytham, was sentenced on Friday (31 March) at Preston Crown Court for a number of offences, including Hacking offences under the Computer Misuse Act, s170 Data Protection Act and Making Indecent Images of Children.

The defendant was found to have hacked into the Snapchat and Facebook accounts of a woman he knew and changed login details to prevent the victim from accessing her own accounts. He also stole private images of the victim from her Snapchat account and stored copies of these on his own device. Upon examination, the defendant’s devices were also found to contain indecent images of children.

The investigation forms part of Operation Alliance; Cumbria Constabulary’s ongoing response to serious and organised crime.

Detective Constable Jon Hill from Cumbria Constabulary’s Cyber and Digital Crime Unit said: .Sam Partington used technology as a weapon to exert control. Given our growing reliance upon technology, cases of digitally-enabled domestic abuse are becoming more prevalent. However, they do remain under-reported.

I hope that this result sends a clear message to victims, and would be offenders, that digitally- enabled domestic abuse will not be tolerated and the police will use all powers at our disposal to bring offenders to justice.

I would urge anyone who has been a victim of any type of domestic abuse, to report this matter to the Constabulary via any of our reporting channels.’