Jennifer Lawrence's former boyfriend Brad Jackson alleges he's a hacker

Brad Jackson alleges that he dated Lawrence when they were pre-teens growing up in Louisville, Kentucky

The Oscar-winning actress has won new admirers with her response to becoming a ‘sex crime’ victim (PA)

A man who claims to be Jennifer Lawrence’s ex-boyfriend has admitted that he is a computer hacker - just a month after the Oscar-winning actress became the victim of the 4Chan nude photo leak scandal.

Brad Jackson, who alleges that he dated Lawrence when they were pre-teens growing up in Louisville, Kentucky made the revelation in conversation with the Sun on Sunday about the breach of privacy she suffered.

“She’s the type of person who would have done a nude scene but would’ve wanted to make the decision on her own,” he said.

“The fact a hacker did it [leaked the pictures] was pretty s**ty - but that's the kind of field I'm in.”

The IT graduate went on to claim that he’d seen the computer screen of a man claiming to have been the person who accessed Lawrence’s private photographs through her computer without her permission.

He went on to claim that he is not a “black hat” hacker, like those that work for 4Chan, but would be tempted by the profit he could make from it.

“I’m so tempted to go into the illegal part and make more money,” he apparently told the tabloid.

Lawrence recently addressed the “violating” incident in an interview with Vanity Fair. In it, she described having naked photographs of her leaked onto the internet as a “sex crime”.

“It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. That’s why these websites are responsible,” she said.

“Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me. I just can’t imagine being that detached from humanity. I can’t imagine being that thoughtless and careless and so empty inside.”

She also condemned the actions of Perez Hilton, the celebrity blogger who initially published the images uncensored.

“[Perez] took it down because people got pissed, and that's the only reason why,” she said.

“And then I had to watch his apology. And what he basically said was, 'I just didn't think about it.' 'I just didn't think about it' is not an excuse. That is the exact issue itself.”

Hilton has since retaliated, telling Lawrence “f**k you” in a second YouTube video, oddly billed as an apology.

The still anonymous hackers published the images via online forum 4Chan.

The original list had also included Mary-Kate Olsen and Vanessa Hudgens, as well as Ariana Grande, Jessica Brown Findlay, Mary E Winstead, Mary E Winstead, Cara Delevingne, Kate Bosworth, Selena Gomez, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst and Kaley Cuoco.

The FBI and Apple are both conducting investigations into the apparent widespread invasion of personal accounts thought to be connected to the iCloud service.

In September, a second wave of naked images, thought to depict female stars including Kim Kardashian and Rihanna, emerged online.

Entertainment lawyer Marty Singer has written to Google threatening to sue the company for $100 million for failing to delete private images of a dozen undisclosed female victims and demanding it pays damages for "knowingly accommodating, facilitating and perpetuating the unlawful conduct" of the 4Chan hackers.

Google has since responded, with a spokesperson telling The Independent: "We've removed tens of thousands of pictures – within hours of the requests being made – and we have closed hundreds of accounts.

"The Internet is used for many good things. Stealing people's private photos is not one of them."