Women Powerless As Man Posts 'Vulgar' Pictures
(CBS) – It's creepy: A man with a camera targets women and girls and posts their photos on porn sites.
Victims say the worst part is this: It's perfectly legal.
CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports.
One local college student is creeped out by dozens of images of herself on the video-sharing porn site XHamster.
"I listened to the videos. The things being said about me just made me feel violated and gross," she says.
She's not alone. In fact, ever since 10th Ward Ald. John Pope used his Facebook page to warn residents about "unauthorized postings on the internet," several victims have surfaced.
The pictures were taken all over the Southeast Side. The woman and girls were just going about their business with no idea they were being photographed.
Some were walking down the street, others home from school.
"He makes a disgusting comment about them and then, in another picture, he zooms in on their private areas," says Veronica Moreno, mother of one 16-year-old victim.
She went straight to police. But the police said there was nothing they could do.
"Absolutely nothing," Moreno says. "The images are taken in public, therefore the holder of the image has their right to do whatever he wants with that image."
The pictures were posted by one man, and have been viewed thousands of times. But because the women are fully clothed, police say they aren't considered lewd and are perfectly legal. That's even though many of the girls pictured are minors.
"He's talking vulgar about all these little girls. I just don't understand how there's nothing they can do about it," said the college student, whose identity is not being disclosed.
Victims are advised to contact XHamster and ask for their photos to be removed. But for some, the damage is done.
The women believe they know the man responsible for the postings. When CBS 2 went to his door on the Southeast Side Thursday, no one answered.
XHamster did not respond for a request for comment.
