Sell the story, if so to who?

It is illegal, yeesh! How many times does it need repeating?

Hope you're ok OP. I'd go to the council first rather than the papers.

I was a journalist many years ago.
Only local and maybe regional papers would be interested and they don’t have the budget to pay.
They could name him if they were confident it was him - it’s extremely expensive to bring a case for libel and if the allegations can be proved he would have no chance of succeeding.
Most likely thing that would happen if you went public is that he might be thrown out of the party and therefore have to continue as an independent councillor, and might well lose his seat at the next election. Of course, if he’s in a relationship that could break down too.
It’s disgraceful behaviour but not sure if it’s actually illegal.

I’m not sure about the app but logging in to a iPad might show you the option the notifications on the right hand side it says private message. the paper might not be able to mention he’s a councillor but they can say op messaging a guy received inappropriate pictures should she report him or something like that.

100% nothing wrong with taking the money and buying whatever you want.

I know that councillors' contact details are on the local council website, ours is broken down by wards and gives surgery details, email and phone contact and this is as it should be. I assumed that the OP meant a central govt website, hence my querying it

And people wonder why the conviction rate for sexual offences is so low...

Actually, these “lazy journalists” like me (!) wouldn’t be able to publish a story unless there’s been a conviction, or a charge at the very least. Otherwise we’d get done for defamation.

Why not wait until tomorrow the papers read these forums so will probably publish your post they might even DM you and you can decide if you want to go public or name and shame him. He shouldn’t be allowed to do this he is a creep stop him doing it again.

Popbitch?

Guido Fawkes that s the only place i would go

What were the original horrible messages?

I would report to the council ‘standard in office’ department. Keep records of everything.

the nudes is bad enough but the horrible posts are worse.

if he isn’t an independent also complain the local and central political party. If no one acts contact local paper. Don’t ask for money it will make you look like you were fishing. The bigger story will be non action anyway.

if he keeps messaging go to police due to harassment.

Exactly. People are being really nasty to OP when she was trying to give someone a heads up that she thought their photos were being used to catfish her. A reasonable assumption if his messages were really vile. You wouldn't expect a public figure to be so bold.

And it is very common for public figures (especially less well known ones) to have their photos stolen for use on dating sites. Everything from spouses making fake profiles to try and find their cheating spouse, to general catfishes, to money scammers who do it because a semi public figure seems more trustworthy, but not so famous it is unbelievable.

She was being kind, and he repayed her by sending multiple unsolicited nudes.

The PP blaming OP because she messaged him and was also on a dating site are doing some good old fashioned misogynistic victim blaming.

Are you by any chance near Milton Keynes?

Write to the head of your local council and complain.

A national newspaper would possibly pick it up, especially if he's married.

What he did was actually abusive, sending un solicited nudes is the equivalent of flashing, many men do this aggressively and casually in equal measure, without any invitation to do so, I cant believe women are defending this behaviour here.

It's not 'revenge porn' at all, they have sent you this material without your consent.

Odd that someone said to expose them on social media in order to remain anonymous - I mean it's not anonymous if it's on your account.

Google some national papers, contact their features desk and see if they want it, I wouldn't blame you in the least.

However you have to also discuss and consider the possible repercussions in full.

That makes more sense of you contacting him outside the app.

it’s definitely of interest to someone. There must be a code of conduct, a local party that selected him as their candidate, and a local paper where he holds office — doesn’t have to be local to you.

Get the money before you share photos.

Look on tabloids for similar stories, scroll to bottom & usually see a name and email contact them.

Never give away the goods until you have the money & agreement in writing,

I am dubious about this story but I have just checked, and my local councillor's mobile number is on the website.