A internet-dater who sent naked photos of his online girlfriend to everyone in her e-mail address book in a fit of jealous rage was today facing a possible jail sentence.

Stephen Hailes, 48, took his revenge after discovering that Karen Parker, 36, with whom he had developed an online relationship, was also flirting with other male web-surfers.

Magistrates heard that the pair met in an internet chatroom and after a period of flirtation Mrs Parker, a married mother of two, sent Hailes a series of provocative photos, some featuring her completely nude and others posed in sexy lingerie.

At some point in their online romance he became suspicious that she was contacting other men and logged into her Hotmail account using the password that she had previously given him.

Crushed when his fears were confirmed, Hailes decided to avenge his broken heart by forwarding the revealing shots to all her e-mail contacts, the court heard.

The unemployed Gloucester tree surgeon was told he could be sent to prison when he is sentenced next month, after he pleaded guilty to sending indecent photos by a public communication network.

Prosecutor Sharon Jomaa said Mrs Parker, who works in a supermarket, only discovered what Hailes had done when friends called her to ask why she had sent them the risqué photos. Shortly afterwards, she contacted the police.

”In the police interview the defendant said that he wanted her husband to realise what sort of woman his wife was,” she told the court.

Nick Cooper, for the defence, apportioned some of the blame to Mrs Parker herself, who, he said, had sent the risqué snaps of her own volition.

"Mrs Parker acted most inappropriately and to some extent was the author of her own misfortune,” he said.

"He admits flirting with her on the internet and then, to his surprise, he received photographs of her naked - he had not asked for them.

"He forwarded the photographs out of jealousy and upset, but Mrs Parker must accept some degree of culpability. My client wants to have nothing more to do with her."

Speaking after the hearing yesterday, Hailes told how he and Mrs Parker, of Worthing in West Sussex, would chat for hours online and over the telephone.

But when the dad-of-one confronted her with suspicions of her “cheating” during a New Year’s Eve phone call, she told him to leave her alone as he was becoming "obsessed". He later sent her flowers and a card but his advances were ignored.

After seeing the messages to other men, an enraged Hailes rang her husband Colin, an RAC worker, in mid-January and told him about the explicit photos she had sent. He had spoken to him on the phone before when ringing to speak to Mrs Parker and he seemed like a "nice guy," he said.

He said he would forward them from her email account as proof, but claims he accidentally hit "send all" in her address book and inadvertently sent them to 15 recipients.

The spurned surfer said he felt he had been victimised for a mistake he made ”in the heat of the moment”.

He said:”I can’t believe what’s happened. I really liked her and thought we may have something special together. It’s such a shame it’s ended like this.”

”I don’t see why I could go to prison for sending these rude pictures of her, when she made the rude pictures and sent them in the first place. She gave me the ammunition.

”It was a silly mistake. I was jealous and upset, but I honestly never meant to hurt anyone.”

Hailes was told to return to Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court on March 19 to be sentenced.

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