A musician, Anna Downes, reported her case of being ignored by her local police force and made to feel “a nuisance” after receiving pornographic images and videos from a man she had met at work. As cyberflashing needed to be taken more seriously because she felt forced to investigate the crime herself, Ben Gunnery was arrested, found guilty, and given a two-year community order almost six months after Anna Downes reported the incident to West Mercia Police in September. Ms. Downes received an apology from the force for the delay in handing over her case to the Metropolitan Police. Gunnery, a 45-year-old violinist and teacher from Worcestershire who had fought a four-year cocaine addiction, had intended to send his partner the photos. He was convicted of a similar crime in 2023 after sending two derogatory and indecent pictures to a woman he met at work. On Tuesday, Gunnery was given a two-year community order, including 150 hours of unpaid work and Judge Nermine Abdel Sayed told him he would be sent to prison if he reoffended. The judge said he should have known the impact his actions would have and that his victim now feels “like she has to constantly look over her shoulder.” Ms. Downes was stunned and felt horrified and violated, as she had quite a long period of time where she would struggle to get to sleep at night and every time she shut her eyes, she would be faced with these images again. Gunnery, who performed music for films, toured the world, and was teaching children and adults at the time of his offence, was arrested, charged, and appeared in court. In a trial in May, he was found guilty of intentionally sending the images to cause alarm, distress, and humiliation. Since she felt that most men are not like this and that this behavior needs to be called out, Ms. Downes decided to speak out in order to inspire others. The experience of BBC correspondent Lucy Manning, who received sexually explicit phone calls from a stranger but had her case dropped by the police and only reopened after a Victims’ Right to Review was conducted, motivated her to keep pressing the police to look into her complaints. Ms. Downes said her experience seemed at odds with the inquiry into Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens, a police officer who abducted, raped, and murdered her while off duty. The government accepted the inquiry’s recommendations that there should be a fundamental review of how indecent exposure was treated, but Ms. Downes felt her case was not a priority for West Mercia Police. A spokesperson for the force said they understood her frustrations over the delay in their investigation and had apologised and given her a “full explanation.” An internal review concluded West Mercia’s service was “acceptable” and officers complied with policy while the crime was being transferred to another force.
