Maryland Mayor Accused of Posting Revenge Porn to r/needysluts Reddit Forum

The mayor of a Maryland city was just charged with 50 counts of distributing revenge porn after he allegedly posted nude photos of a woman to Reddit while in office, according to a charging document released Monday.

The alleged victim came forward to law enforcement in May, the charging document filed in a Dorchester County court alleges. The woman said the nude photos had been shared on Reddit without her consent, and that only Mayor Andrew Bradshaw, whom she had previously been romantically involved with, had been in possession of them. He allegedly posted them to Reddit forums like r/DegradeThisPig and r/needysluts. 

Now, if convicted, 32-year-old Bradshaw, who became Cambridge, Maryland’s youngest-ever mayor when he took the job earlier this year, could face up to two years of incarceration and a fine of $5,000 for each revenge porn count, Maryland State Prosecutor Charlton T. Howard III said in a press release Monday. 

“Using someone’s private images without their consent is a serious breach of trust and invasion of privacy, and the power and breadth of the internet makes such a violation even more egregious,” said Howard. “Our office is committed to protecting victims from those who abuse their positions of power and trust.”

Bradshaw had created various Reddit usernames using “permutations of the name and birthdate of” the woman, the charging document alleges, and he posted the photos to subreddit forums associated with sexual activity, humiliation, degradation, and race, according to the press release. The charging document also alleges he posted to subreddits related to “raceplay,” specifically, using “racial slurs in several of the posting titles.” 

He allegedly made these posts many times. He wrote, “The kind of body black men love,” as the caption for an image posted to a raceplay subreddit in April, according to the charging document.

And, on Easter Sunday, he also allegedly captioned a photo of the woman with the comment: “He is risen, but I'd like to make something rise In your pants ;)”

Some captions also mentioned religion.

“Dad sent me to Catholic school, now I'm on here helping guys nut ;)” said the caption accompanying one photo of the woman’s exposed intimate parts, according to the charging document. The image was allegedly posted in the r/DadWouldBeProud subreddit.

Another allegedly read: “He paid for Catholic school, now I post my tits on reddit so guys jerk off to me.” 

And other captions, which were also seemingly written as if they came from the woman in the images, referenced the woman’s body type, according to the charging document.

“My titties are big, but so is my tummy, and I have so many self-esteem issues because of it,” Bradshaw allegedly titled one photo in the r/humiliatingcomments subreddit.

The posts were traced back to an IP address associated with a property Bradshaw owns, according to the charging document. 

A woman who picked up the phone at the mayor’s office declined to comment on behalf of the city, but did not provide her name. Bradshaw did not immediately respond to VICE News’ request for comment. 

Police searched both Bradshaw’s home and the mayor’s office in August, according to the Dorchester Star. At the time, Bradshaw described it as a “personal matter.” He appeared to continue his mayoral duties afterward.

Maryland is among the 48 states that have a revenge porn statute, according to data kept by the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a nonprofit advocating for policy changes that fight online abuse; the state’s law specifically bans the “nonconsensual distribution of a private visual representation of another which exposes their intimate body parts or displays them engaged in sexual activity,” particularly with the intent to harm or harass the individual.