'Revenge porn' website former owner Hunter Moore arrested

Hunter Moore faces decades in prison on charges of conspiracy and aggravated identity theft

US authorities have arrested two men in California for hacking email accounts and stealing nude photos to post on a so-called "revenge porn" website.

Hunter Moore, 27, and Charles Evens, 24, face charges including conspiracy, unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information and aggravated identity theft.

The men reportedly posted explicit images, submitted without the victim's permission, to IsAnyoneUp.com.

If guilty, they face decades in prison.

Latest legal setback

The arrest on Thursday was the culmination of an FBI investigation into the matter, US Attorney Wendy Wu said in a statement.

According to court documents, Mr Moore operated a website which posted sexually explicit images for the purposes of revenge.

Mr Moore is said to have paid Mr Evens to hack into hundreds of victims' email accounts to obtain more nude photos to post on the website.

The illegally obtained photos were then put online without the consent of those pictured.

It is the latest legal setback for Mr Moore, who was ordered in March to pay $250,000 (£170,000) in damages for defamation resulting from a civil lawsuit.

Mr Moore was found to have used Twitter to make false claims about the chief executive of an anti-bullying website, James McGibney.

James McGibney alleged Mr Moore had labelled him a paedophile who possessed child pornography.

Mr McGibney's website Bullyville.com had purchased the domain, IsAnyoneUp.com, from Mr Moore in 2012.