The son of an Airbnb host was sentenced to 3 years in jail for filming a visitor getting out of the bathe with a hidden digicam.
Kevin James Strutz, 52, was sentenced on November 27 for cyberstalking after he filmed an Airbnb visitor staying at his mom’s Ceres, California residence in 2020, which he additionally shared. He then proceeded to make use of the footage to blackmail her into sending him lewd movies.
In accordance with court docket paperwork, the nameless sufferer, who’s listed as a touring occupational therapist, noticed a textual content message on Strutz’s telephone that he had left within the rest room, calling her “by chance horny” and suggesting that he was keen on her in an unprofessional and nonconsensual method.
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Upon seeing the message, the lady was relocated by Airbnb however rapidly started receiving threatening messages from Strutz on a number of social media accounts. In accordance with court docket paperwork, he claimed he would launch the nude footage of her to her contacts if she didn’t comply and ship him X-rated movies of herself.
“The messages grew to become more and more aggressive, and one included a picture of the sufferer exiting a bathe that had been taken with out her data or consent on the Airbnb residence,” the Division of Justice mentioned in a press release. “Strutz despatched the picture to her with a requirement that she ship him a sexually express video or he would ship the picture to her family and friends.”
Strutz was arrested in 2020 and admitted to the FBI that he had recorded the unlawful footage through the use of a cellphone digicam he had hidden in a basket within the rest room.
Airbnb banned the hosts from the platform and condemned Strutz to the native outlet, CBS Bay Space.
“We’ve no tolerance for the reported habits and labored rapidly to help the survivor as soon as she introduced it to our consideration, together with banning the related host accounts from our platform on the time,” the corporate mentioned in a press release. “We assisted the FBI of their investigation and hope justice is appropriately served.”
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Airbnb didn’t instantly reply to Entrepreneur‘s request for remark.
