Man forces girl to walk naked down New York street

Faces 7 years in jail

A 24-year-old woman was forced to walk a New York street naked by her partner, as punishment for texting another man.

Image: Jason Melo/Instagram 

Jason Melo, who appeared in court on December 11, faces up to 7 years' jail for charges including coercion, assault and aggravated harassment.

In January 2016 he made his unnamed girlfriend walk down a Harlem street covered by just a towel. He then pulled the towel away and made her pose for photos.

Melo told the court his reasoning: he arrived home after a night out to find his girlfriend sending text messages, before snatching the phone to discover pictures of another man's penis on her phone.

While he told the court that she agreed to the punishment, she testified that the act was humiliating and only occurred after two hours of beating and threats.

Related: More women come forward in Don Burke sexual harassment case.

"He grabbed my neck, and force it really hard. I was losing breath. He was saying many things, like I'm a whore, I could kill you right now, I'm capable of anything."

He said, you know what, you're gonna pay. You're gonna get naked and you're gonna go out on the street, and you're gonna pay," she continued.

On the video, Melo yells at her in Spanish, "Take off your towel and pay the price for the shame I feel after telling you how pretty you were and that I wanted to start a family with you. Say 'hi' to the camera and say why you're doing this."

After sharing the footage, Melo allegedly even tried to profit from the video and sold merchandise labelled with quotes - one hat, for example, had the words "Let's Go, Participa!" written on it, a line he uses in the video.

Listen: 9Honey's Life Bites podcast talks about sexual harassment


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