James Aldous, 22, hatched his 'outrageous and humiliating' scheme because he was upset that Cassie Fearnley had got a new boyfriend.
He let himself into Miss Fearnley's home in the early hours of the morning, logged onto her laptop and took copies of 20 pictures of his former lover in her underwear and posing topless.
The chef, from Clacton, Essex, later posted the private images on four different networking websites.
The mother-of-one, also 22, only found out what Aldous had done when a friend told her about the scantily clad and semi-nude images.
Her humiliation was compounded as her ex-boyfriend claims he was not responsible for some of the websites the pictures can be viewed on - so she is unable to have them removed.
Aldous was given an 18 week suspended prison sentence at Colchester Magistrates' Court yesterday after admitting harassment at an earlier hearing.
The court heard he began a relationship with Miss Fearnley in 2008 and the couple have a two-year-old daughter together.
They split up last October but carried on living together for a month for the sake of their child but Aldous moved out after a series of rows.
The chef stood in the dock wearing a white shirt with grey collar and grey trousers and was shaking his head as sections of the evidence was heard.
Philip Pearson, prosecuting, said: 'Nobody should post photographs of another person - it's grossly offensive. This was outrageous behaviour.
'After they split, Miss Fearnley noticed several items had been moved and was wondering why this was happening.
'One night towards the end of November she fell asleep on the sofa in her sitting room and woke up at 4am to the sound of the front door being closed.
'She looked out of the window and could see the defendant getting into his car and driving away. She phoned him straight away and he confessed he had been in the house and had the key to the property.'
It was in February that Miss Fearnley discovered that Aldous had been posting her images online.
Mr Pearson added: 'She also found other sites with the images on and became shocked and concerned.
'Aldous was angry and wanted to get back at her for having a new partner and he chose a grossly offensive way to do so.'
Miss Fearnley confronted her former partner and he confessed to what he had done.
The chef, who has no previous convictions, was arrested and admitted to officers that he had posted the images of Miss Fearnley on two websites.
He admitted feeling 'angry and wanted to get back at her for having a new partner.'
Sections of Miss Fearnley's police statement were read to the court in which she admitted feeling 'humiliated'.
Anna Perera, mitigating, said Aldous claimed he had only posted the pictures on two websites.
She said: 'He did feel angry and posted the photographs she had shown to him previously. As soon as she found out, he took them down immediately.
'He is deeply ashamed of his behaviour and recognises it was an appalling thing to do. He is a responsible and caring father.'
Sentencing, Martin Stutchfield chairman of the bench, slammed Aldous for his depraved actions.
He said: 'We have considered this in quite some detail. It was a particularly heinous crime and the principal is a disgraceful one. We do believe it passes the custody threshold. However, we are going to suspend the sentence.'
Aldous was also ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work in the community and told to pay £105 costs and an £80 victim surcharge.
The court was told that it would be very hard to remove pictures of Miss Fearnley from the internet completely.
The young woman said she had been left feeling by the embarrassment of what happened.
The student said: 'It has been really traumatic for me - there have been days when I have not felt up to going into college because of the shame.
'I have had the police in and out of my house and of course they have been viewing the pictures which is not very nice thing to have to go through.
'It was a massive betrayal of trust - perhaps he was just jealous but for him to post the pictures of me online was so hurtful. When I found out what had happened, I confronted him about it.
'He told me he had a problem and needed to seek professional help for it.
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