Sell the story, if so to who?

[cupsandcupsoftea]

I'm unsure about this but I'm on dating sites and as we all know it's full of parasites.

I was speaking to an elected councillor who I thought was decent, he sent me nudes, vulgar text etc. He swiftly deleted it but it's really wrong, I have screenshot etc. He was disgusting.

I'm not on about selling per se for money but we shouldn't have creeps like this representing us.

So from what you say, if the pics were unsolicited, it looks like he has committed a crime.

And also that if you were to share the pics around other than at the request of the police, that could possibly come under you committing a crime ("revenge porn").

But like I said, IANAL.

If he is found not guilty and you are plastered over the internet, the only person who will look and be in the wrong is you. And once it's on there, that's there to stay. Future employers, future relationships, existing/future children. They will question why you didn't go down the usual routes.

To me, what you want to do is the equivalent of going on Jeremy Kyle show.

Also, you haven't answered the questions from either me or other pp.

No, they are not all work numbers.
I am not going to say how I know (to use an MN trope, it could be outing), but I am close enough to this to know that in some cases, they use their personal number.

If he sent unsolicited nudes then report him to the police. No other action required.

This turd deserves shaming. Fully support you doing so OP. So many subpar men out there.

Exactly she should, but there's no wonga in doing that is there?

There's a strong tea theme on this thread.

Please don't tell me it's Sooty!

Councillors numbers, often personal and mobiles are included on Councils websites. For those who don’t believe this, go look on your local one.

only the local press to him would be interested initially,
the monitoring officer can be complained to (you can check the councils website for councillors code of conduct and complaints procedure),
sending unsolicited sexual pictures is illegal nowadays, so you could also report to the police.

should he be a representative on the council, I have no idea… not many politicians at any level are in it for altruistic reasons, some start out that way but it often fades. Is his behaviour disgusting, yes, should he be pulled up on it anymore than any other man because he is in public office… probably, but he still be put forward at the next election and still be elected.

always think carefully about the outcome of what your next step will be because it isn’t always clear and may have a detrimental impact on you.

If you want to take a moral stand report unsolicited nudes to the police. If you want to make some money wait and see if he stands as an MP at some point and then sell your story.

You could send it to Private Eye. They have a regular column called "Rotten Boroughs" dedicated to the misdeeds of local government officials and councillors. Write to [email protected] and put "Possible story for Rotten Boroughs" in the subject line. They will keep you completely anonymous. I don't know if they will pay very much, but I've had the odd £100 off them in the past for small stories.

What was the original dating site? If it was something like Tinder where conversations often go straight to sexting and are aimed at quick hook ups then I’m not sure why you didn’t just block him and move on as he wasn’t your cup of tea.

If he was chatting to you via his work device about work issues and then he suddenly started sending vulgar sex related messages and nudes then you’d have a great story for the papers.

If you’d uncovered that the man on the dating site was actually catfishing using the councilors name and image then you’d have quite a good story.

But what you have at the moment is a man who is looking for a sex hook up using his real name and image so not trying to fool anyone. His approach didn’t suit you and he hadn’t realized that when you followed him from the site to another contact number.

He’s been a bit impulsive sending you nudes without consent but a lot depends on what your conversation with him has been from your side. If he thought his potential Tinder hook up was keen enough to track him down and message him then he might have thought you were on the same page.

It’s not quite the same as Mrs Jones messaging to complain about the council’s dog poo policy and getting a full frontal in return out of the blue.

Police, the relevant council and private eye. Back up the screenshots somewhere before you speak to the police.

It doesn't matter, your local paper is still likely to have the most interest in what your local councillors get up to.

You might be better off formally reporting him to the head of the council, though.

I don't think the site matters, wasn't tinder btw.

We were just chatting about normal stuff then then he got disgusting so I didn't reply. I assumed someone was impersonating him so found the number from the council site sent a message and turns out it was really him then the nudes etc.

He deleted them as I never said anything to encourage him. Nothing. He was grim.

Some good points here OP.

Yes, you're right ... the world is full of parasites. You know one personally, very well (yourself)

Absolutely nothing on my side.

Exactly. Comes across like a set up by the op, all with a newspaper article in mind.

She won’t fare much better than him if she persists

Why exactly?

The head of the council will find out when he's charged with sending unsolicited indecent images. Might as well go straight to the police.

Tbh any journalist worth their salt reading this will have figured it out anyway!

You sound a nut job. You went on a dating app you liked him You went to the effort of getting his number obviously sent messages yourself of such content and then got nudes as a result. I bet you wasn't asking what colour tie he wore to work was you?

Report him to the police for sending unsolicited nudes.

Sometimes an impersonator manages (at least temporarily) to take over the real person's workplace e-mail. I experienced this once with a financial scammer, who assumed the persona of someone whom I know slightly in a professional context, and asked me for money to help a relative. I e-mailed the real person at his professional site, as the story sounded fishy, and the scammer assured me that, yes, it was him. It wasn't, and it eventually got sorted out.

You found a local councillor's phone number on a government website? this sounds highly improbable....