A woman from North Texas was awarded $450,000 this month after she filed a lawsuit against a man who stole sexually explicit images and videos from her phone and sent them to her mother.
Sadaf Khan, now residing in Southlake, took legal action against a former customer from the insurance agency where she worked, accusing him of distributing “revenge porn” following her rejection of his marriage proposal. Revenge porn involves sharing sexually explicit content without the individual’s consent.
In a unanimous decision, a Dallas County jury granted Khan $150,000 for mental anguish and $300,000 for punitive damages.
The lawsuit outlined that Syed Bilal began romantically pursuing Khan in 2020, frequently appearing at her home in Bedford and later in Euless, as well as at her office in Irving. When she declined his advances, he retaliated by hacking into her phone and stealing sexually explicit material.
In April 2021, Bilal, a resident of Richardson, proposed marriage and warned Khan that he would send the explicit content to her friends and family if she rejected him. Given Khan’s background in a traditional Pakistani community, where extramarital relationships are strongly discouraged, the threat was deemed severe, according to the lawsuit.
Despite the threat, Khan rejected Bilal’s marriage proposal. In response, he sent the explicit content to one person: Khan’s mother, who resides in California.
The lawsuit further revealed that Bilal falsely claimed to friends and family that he and Khan were already married, and that she had cheated on him. In November 2021, Khan obtained a protective order against Bilal in Tarrant County, where she lived.
During the Tarrant County hearing, Bilal admitted to being already married to two women, one legally and one religiously. He asserted that a religious marriage was necessary before engaging in sexual intimacy with another person.
Khan shared with The Dallas Morning News the emotional toll of the privacy invasion, leaving her feeling vulnerable and terrified. It strained her relationships with friends and family, including her mother.
The verdict, one of the largest payouts in Texas for revenge porn, comes after a Texas woman was awarded $1.2 billion in a similar case. Khan’s attorney, Jonathan Wharton, expressed hope that this decision, along with others, would serve as a deterrent and emphasized the importance of maintaining privacy for personal content on electronic devices.
Khan stated her desire for the case to set an example and empower other women facing threats or harassment to speak up and fight back. As of now, an attorney for Bilal has not responded to requests for comment.
