Jennifer Lawrence’s Nude Photos Hacker Sentenced to 8 Months in Prison for 2014 Leak
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The final of four hackers who leaked private nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other female celebrities back in 2014 was sentenced to eight months in prison on Wednesday, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Connecticut.
George Garofano, 26, had pled guilty in April to engaging in a phishing scheme that helped him illegally obtain usernames and passwords to private Apple iCloud accounts of approximately 240 people, many of whom are in the entertainment industry. Emails appeared to be from Apple security account he sent between April 2013 and Oct. 2014, encouraging victims to send him their personal information.
Lawrence was one of Garofano’s victims, as were stars like Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, and Meagan Good — their photos spread online without their consent.
“When the hacking thing happened, it was so unbelievably violating that you can’t even put it into words,” Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter in November 2017. “I feel like I got gang-banged by the f—— planet — like, there’s not one person in the world that is not capable of seeing these intimate photos of me. You can just be at a barbecue and somebody can just pull them up on their phone. That was a really impossible thing to process.”
Three other hackers who participated in the leak have already been sentenced, The Guardian reported, each getting between 9-month and 18-months prison terms.
Garofano will report for his eight months on Oct. 10, 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, and is currently released on a $50,000 bond. Jail time will be followed by three years of supervised release for Garofano, authorities added, and 60 hours of community service.
The sentencing comes nearly four years to the day after news of the leaks began surfacing.
An outspoken supporter of women’s rights, the actress said the hack even made her question her viability as a role model. “I think, like, a year and a half ago, somebody said something to me about how I was ‘a good role model for girls,’ and I had to go into the bathroom and sob because I felt like an imposter — I felt like, ‘I can’t believe somebody still feels that way after what happened,’ ” she said. “It’s so many different things to process when you’ve been violated like that.”
“None of that was gonna bring my nude body back to me and [former boyfriend] Nic [Hoult], the person that they were intended for,” Lawrence said. “I was just interested in healing.”