The woman, who The Sun-Herald has chosen not to identify, ran to Usmanov's flat at Pyrmont, demanding he take down the pictures. When he refused, she called the police.

Privacy experts say Usmanov's case has exposed the ''tip of the iceberg'' of online offences that rarely go punished. Sentencing the 20-year-old, the Deputy-Chief Magistrate, Jane Mottley, said she was ''deterring both the offender and the community generally from committing similar crimes''. She said: ''New-age technology through Facebook gives instant access to the world. Facebook as a social networking site has limited boundaries. Incalculable damage can be done to a person's reputation by the irresponsible posting of information through that medium. With its popularity and potential for real harm, there is a genuine need to ensure the use of this medium to commit offences of this type is deterred.

''The harm to the victim is not difficult to contemplate: embarrassment, humiliation and anxiety at not only the viewing of the images by persons who are known to her but also the prospect of viewing by those who are not. It can only be a matter for speculation as to who else may have seen the images, and whether those images have been stored in such a manner which, at a time the complainant least expects, they will again be available for viewing, circulation or distribution.''

The court could cite just one other relevant case in which a 20-year-old New Zealand man was sentenced to four months' jail in Wellington in 2010 for posting nude pictures of his ex-girlfriend on Facebook.

Usmanov, a credit controller for a shipping company, pleaded guilty to publishing an indecent article but appealed the six-month sentence that was to be served as home detention. Justice Reg Blanch of the District Court confirmed the original sentence but quashed the home detention order in favour of a suspended sentence on February 15.