A comedy hypnotist used “insidious tactics” to hack into victims’ social media and then sold their intimate photos online, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.

Stage performer Robert Temple, 36, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, was jailed for eight months earlier this week after he admitted a string of fraud charges, computer misuse offences and concealing or transferring criminal property.

The CPS said that in May 2021, police received a report from Action Fraud about an online forum in which users could make requests anonymously for explicit photographs of named women.

Temple hacked the Snapchat accounts of two women and subsequently downloaded private pictures, including topless and nude pictures, to then sell them online.

Investigators traced the unauthorised social media account access to the defendant’s home.

Temple also committed identity fraud to mask his criminal activities by setting up cryptocurrency accounts in a woman’s name, but operated by him without her knowledge.

He used the accounts to conceal the funds raised from selling the hacked, intimate photos.

In interview, the defendant admitted that he used these accounts to layer funds obtained from selling items obtained illegally, the CPS said Annette Thomas, senior crown prosecutor with CPS East Midlands, said: “The actions of Robert Temple were utterly reprehensible.

“Using insidious tactics, he exploited these unsuspecting women by hacking into their social media accounts and sharing intimate images of them online, without their knowledge, all for financial greed.

“Let this conviction be clear to those who hide behind a screen to commit their crimes, you cannot hide from the law and the Crown Prosecution Service will continue to work to achieve justice for victims of cybercrime.”

Temple was on tour this month and must have expected to avoid jail as performances of his Red Raw – named after his dyed hair – were scheduled for this week.

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Last month he was in the news when he successfully challenged Bolton Council over a public safety ban on “hypnotism, mesmerism and any similar act which produces induced sleep or trance” which had been in place since 1982.

After his win, the told The Guardian newspaper: “Hypnosis is only dangerous if it’s the wrong people and it’s used in the wrong way.

“I’m all for regulations, and to make sure people are insured and are high-risk assessed, have got some sort of training and do know what they’re doing.”