Accused of Sharing Intimate Images in Spain: What to Do

Discovering that you have been reported for sharing intimate images — photos or videos of a sexual nature — often happens after a break-up or an argument, and causes immediate worry. This guide is written from the perspective of the person accused: what to do in the first hours, why forwarding may already be a crime, and how the defence is approached. To understand the offence in detail, see also our guide to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

You Have Been Reported: What to Do First

The first steps shape everything that follows:

• Do not testify without a lawyer. You have the right not to testify; an improvised explanation can work against you.
• Stop any sharing or forwarding at once. Continuing to share the images makes the problem worse.
• Do not send anything further, but keep the context of the conversations that explain what happened.
• Contact a criminal-defence lawyer to prepare your first statement and organise the available evidence.

What Art. 197.7 CP punishes

Art. 197.7 CP punishes with imprisonment of three months to a year, or a fine, anyone who shares, discloses or passes to third parties, without the consent of the person affected, intimate recordings or images obtained with her consent in a home or a place beyond the reach of others' view, when the disclosure seriously damages her privacy. There is no need to have recorded the image yourself: sharing or forwarding it is enough.

Consenting to being sent the images does not authorise sharing them

This is the point that causes the most confusion. Consensual sexting between adults is lawful, but consenting to have images is not the same as consenting to share them. The offence under Art. 197.7 CP is built precisely on that scenario: images obtained with a person's consent in a private context that are later shared without her permission. Forwarding them to a group or a third party, even if it was "only to one person," can satisfy the offence.

Aggravating factors: partner, minors, intent to profit

Art. 197.7 CP itself imposes the penalty in its upper half when circumstances that are very common in these cases are present: the offender is or has been the victim's spouse or partner — even without cohabitation — the victim is a minor or a person with a disability in need of special protection, or the offence is committed for profit. The presence of an aggravating factor substantially changes the classification and the defence strategy.

How the defence and the dismissal are approached

The defence usually focuses on authorship (establishing who actually shared the images), on the existence and extent of the disclosure to third parties, and on the serious damage to privacy that the offence requires. When one of these elements is not proven, the proceedings can be dismissed, and an acquittal is possible at trial. Our firm handles criminal defence in cases of sharing intimate images.