'He sent me reams of naked photos': Victims of cyberflasher speak out
FacebookEliza Carthy felt full of dread as her phone buzzed through the night once again.
As a world-renowned musician, she needed her sleep - working long hours touring while caring for her 84-year-old father, legendary folk singer and 2025 Mercury Prize nominee Martin Carthy.
But still, the messages kept on coming, often into the early hours of the morning.
What had started as a friendly conversation over Facebook between performers had turned sinister almost overnight.
This story contains details of sexual harassment some may find upsetting.
"He would just send reams and reams and reams of pictures of himself naked and videos of himself masturbating," she said.
"Sometimes he would delete them and sometimes he wouldn't, and then, interspersed with that would be videos of him playing at the Albert Hall."
The man sending these messages was Ben Gunnery, 46, a successful violinist from Vauxhall, London, who has performed all over the world.
He was given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years on Monday after admitting sending images of his genitals to the singer and another woman with the intention of causing distress or humiliation.
A BBC investigation can now reveal the scale of his offending, after six more women came forward to say they had been targeted by Gunnery.
Many of them work in the music industry, like Carthy, 50, who said Gunnery - a stranger - added her on Facebook in June 2024.
He began by complimenting her musical talents and the pair exchanged a few messages, but he suddenly began bombarding her with explicit pictures and videos.
She said this included "hundreds" of Gunnery masturbating.
"The next day he'd delete them and say things like: 'I hope you're still charmed by silly old me?'
"I'd tell him it was too much, I needed boundaries, I had care responsibilities.
"I couldn't turn my phone off as I'm a single parent and a carer for my dad," she said.
He bombarded Carthy, who lives in North Yorkshire, with messages after she asked him to stop.
"The mania of him transferred to me in my bed at night," she said.
"Buzz, buzz, buzz, you can't sleep and you can't ignore it and you just want it to go away."
The court heard how Gunnery also sent her videos of him having sex with other women who appeared to be unaware that they were being filmed.
Our investigation discovered Gunnery had been targeting women for more than a decade.
Jenny, not her real name, said she reported him to the police in 2017 after he sent her images of his genitals.
She did not pursue a prosecution, but said it had a huge effect on her work as a singer after people turned against her for calling him out.
"I stopped getting hired by bands, but they carried on hiring Ben," she said.
In 2017 and 2018, Gunnery performed and taught at a festival in France.
"A private student told us she'd received explicit messages from him," a festival organiser told the BBC.
"We advised her to inform the French police and banned him from the festival."
The event organisers created a specialist safeguarding team to address any future inappropriate or harmful behaviour.
Another female musician said he sent her, then deleted, more than 50 explicit messages between August 2021 and January 2023.
A man told us he confronted Gunnery about his behaviour almost 10 years ago.
"He's been doing this for years. He's lied to everybody left, right and centre," he said.
FacebookGunnery was first convicted in 2023 and was sentenced to a community rehabilitation order for sending indecent images to a woman he met at work.
Then in July last year he was convicted for the second time - for intentionally sending the images to cause alarm, distress and humiliation.
He had only been arrested and charged that time after the BBC informed West Mercia Police musician Anna Downes had contacted them more than 20 times over six months trying to report him.
Downes, from Worcestershire, who also waived her right to anonymity, said such crimes needed to be taken more seriously.
"Most men are not like this and this behaviour needs to be called out. It's not something that I want my sons to think is normal," she said.
"It's very easy to feel some element of shame and keep it to yourself. But right from the word go, I was determined I wasn't going to do that."
Gunnery was given a two-year community rehabilitation order but a judge warned the musician he would be jailed if it happened again.
Gunnery, however, could not help himself.
In November 2025, he sent a photograph and two videos of his genitals to another female musician, who we are calling Kate.
"I felt very alone at that moment and very violated. It seemed such a random thing to happen considering I'd never met this person," she said.
Kate contacted the police after seeing the BBC article on Downes's case. Carthy also reported him after reading our story.
On Monday, he avoided an immediate jail term and was instead given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years after admitting sending the images.
If activated, he will go to prison and serve half, with the rest on licence.
He was told he would remain on the sex offenders' register for 10 more years and given a five-year sexual harm prevention order.
He was also ordered to complete drug and alcohol rehabilitation after saying his addictions fuelled his actions.
FacebookKate said she had been contacted by other women who were sent images by Gunnery.
"It's not just people in the music industry, this was also happening to barmaids, pub landladies and people's mums," she said.
"There were people who were aware of it [his offending] from 10 years ago or longer."
Gunnery continued to perform and teach adults and children at a London music charity for two years following his first conviction.
In November 2025, while on bail and awaiting sentencing, Gunnery was hired to play Winston Churchill's violin at the prestigious RAF Club in London.
The club's management said they were not aware of his convictions or offences until the evening of the performance and said they "deeply regret engaging Mr Gunnery for an event" and apologised to anyone who had been affected.
"We are reviewing our safeguarding policies and practices as a priority," they added.
The BBC also contacted two Irish music bands and both said they would no longer be working with him.
"We are shocked and deeply disappointed," one said. "There is no place in our band, or in our community, for behaviour that harms or disrespects women."
Cyberflashing, when offenders send unsolicited explicit images to people via an online platform, became a specific offence under the Online Safety Act from January 2024.
Before that, police and prosecutors relied on laws dating back before the development of social media, such as sending indecent or offensive messages.
New research led by Prof Clare McGlynn of Durham University and Prof Fiona Vera-Gray from London Metropolitan University found women were almost three times more likely to experience cyberflashing than men.
Twenty-three per cent of women have experienced cyberflashing in their lifetime, compared with 8% of men.
"Everyone has the right to feel safe - and everyone has the right to emotional and physical autonomy," Carthy said.
Kate, who is also still coming to terms with her ordeal, is calling for more awareness about cyberflashing.
"So many people don't know what this is, I didn't know what it was until I googled it and saw that it had a name and it was a crime and that people could be prosecuted," she said.
"Even though it's just seen as behind a keyboard, behind a device, it's still an invasion of your privacy and an abuse of trust and just completely unacceptable."
- A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line
