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The joy of welcoming a new baby—and sharing gorgeous photos on social media—turned sour for two mothers after another woman stole photos of their children from Instagram.
Kati Ringer, 21, has been banned from social media for stealing photos of babies from Instagram and claiming the children were sick or dead in order to make money.
As the BBC reports, Ringer copied the images from two separate accounts belonging to two mothers. Norwich Magistrates’ Court heard that Ringer woman became threatening and abusive when the women complained about their photos being shared.
Jane Walker, prosecuting, told the court that Ringer had sent one mother a ‘laughing face’ emoji on Instagram, and told her: “I’ve already posted pictures saying she’s dead, I’ve got £600 so far”.
Walker added: “She said the victim was a s**t mother, she hoped the little c**t died in its sleep”.
The court heard that Ringer used images of the other mother’s prematurely born daughter, The Telegraph reports.
“She was using the picture of the victim’s baby reporting to people that the baby was premature, that she was seriously ill, struggling to pay for her treatment and funeral,” Ms Walker said.
“The victim challenged the suspect and asked she stop using the images.
“It was then that [Ms Ringer] said she would find out where the victim lived and kidnap and rape her daughter.”
Ringer has been sentenced to a two-year criminal behaviour order that bans her from using social media and for asking any third party for a donation other than for a registered charity. She also received a suspended jail term of 30 weeks and was ordered to pay £225 cost ($380 AUD).
Ringer was first discovered by investigators when her IP address was traced to a computer at her mother’s house.
