- A woman used her ex's
Amazon Alexa speaker to threaten him and his new partner. - She had access to the system to keep an eye on the dog they co-owned.
A woman was spared a three months prison sentence after using an Amazon Alexa smart speaker to verbally threaten her ex's new partner and sharing naked pictures of her former partner.
Phillipa Copleston-Warren, 46, from London, used the device to blare "get the whore out" at her former partner's home in Lincolnshire, Isleworth Crown Court, in west London, heard.
She also threatened the couple by using a connected app to switch their bedside light on and off.
The unnamed victim was unable to use his Facebook or Match.com accounts. Copleston-Warren was also able to access and download a naked picture of her ex, sharing it widely onto his social media with the caption "do I look fat???"
She was charged with a single count of disclosing private sexual photographs with intent to cause distress on or before 6 October 2019, the Evening Standard reports.
Jacob Bindman, defending Copleston-Warren, said his client medically relied on the dog that was shared between Copleston-Warren and her ex. The animal, a support dog, used to care for Bindman's client as a result of her diabetes, would lap water from a bowl to alert her if her sugar levels fall too low.
Bindman explained to Isleworth Crown Court that Copleston-Warren had access to the smart system to check on her dog, which was in the care of her ex after a medical procedure.
Sentencing her, as well as handing her a sentencing-year restraining order, Judge John Denniss said: "I have no doubt that at the time of the offense you were concerned about your dog and the operation it had just had.
"But I am not convinced at all that that was the primary or the only factor that was causing you personal distress.
"There was an element which was nasty, of jealousy, of revenge, and irrational behavior which led to fury-like behavior in you.
"I use the word because it reminds me of the aphorism, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,' and here there are elements of that fury."
The support dog joined Copleston-Warren in the dock, reported the Evening Standard.
The unnamed victim said in a statement the incident had "ruined" people's respect for him and left him "devastated," the BBC report.