WARNING: This article discusses incidents of intimate partner violence that could be distressing to individuals with personal experience or knowledge of such situations.
Upon receiving a text message from an unfamiliar number inquiring about new clients, Larissa Williams was puzzled by the context of the message.
After a brief exchange of messages to clarify the situation, Williams was directed to lyla.ch, a website commonly utilized by escorts and sex workers.
Browsing the site, Williams was shocked to see a photo of her unclothed body — an image she had only shared with her former partner, Cory Lester.
“It was an incredibly surreal moment for me,” Williams shared in a recent interview with CBC News at her residence in Lower Sackville, N.S. “I was viewing an image of myself, realizing that someone I had trusted and loved had betrayed me in a way I never anticipated.”
Although her face was not visible in the image, her name, address, phone number, and other personal details accompanied the photo.
Lester was held accountable under Nova Scotia’s Intimate Images and Cyber-protection Act. The court ordered him to pay Williams $45,000 in damages along with $4,000 in legal fees for posting the image and advertising her for sex work without her consent in the summer of 2022.
“His actions were intended to harass and intimidate her after the end of their romantic relationship,” stated Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Joshua Arnold in the court decision released on Jan. 13, 2025.
Arnold characterized the incident as “retaliatory” following a breakup and imposed a 12-month no-contact order to prevent Lester from communicating with Williams.
“Mr. Lester denied responsibility for posting the image and ad under oath, took no steps to remove it from the internet, showed no accountability, and offered no apology,” Arnold noted.
This case marks the first reported judgment of its kind in Nova Scotia under the Intimate Images Act.
While the legal action brought some closure to Williams, she expressed that there were several opportunities to hold Lester accountable before resorting to a civil case.
Initially facing criminal charges for disseminating the intimate image, which remained online for approximately five weeks, Lester had the charges dropped by the Crown in April 2023 due to insufficient prospects of conviction, as per the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service.
“It’s a relatively new offense that we are still understanding and investigating, which poses challenges,” explained Emma Arnold, Williams’s lawyer from the non-profit law firm People’s Advocacy and Transformational Hub.
“It’s disheartening when a victim cannot seek justice through the criminal justice system after being harmed.”
‘Evading Accountability’
Williams disclosed that she and Lester were in an on-and-off relationship for about three years, during which she and her young child briefly lived with him.
Following an abrupt end to their