A 32-year-old Wirral man has avoided a prison sentence for attempting to blackmail a celebrity by threatening to expose sexually-explicit photos of him with a famous woman.
Desmond Fraser, of Mill Lane, Wallasey pleaded guilty to the charge of attempted blackmail at Winchester Crown Court and was sentenced to 12 months jail suspended for 18 months.
He was also ordered to pay £500 court costs and £100 victim surcharge.
Mary Aspinall-Miles, prosecuting, told the court that Fraser, a security worker, had contacted the male celebrity, referred to only as “T” in court because of an anonymity order protecting his identity, through Twitter saying he had “intimate” photos of him with the female celebrity referred to as “X”.
He went on to Tweet a modified version of a photo, which hid the identities of T and X, in order to prove he had the pictures in his possession.
Ms Aspinall-Miles continued: “He effectively said they were being sold and ‘it’s in your interest to get them first’,
“He said he had been offered £17,300, implying that was the sort of figure he was looking for – ‘Make me a sensible offer in cash and they are yours and erased’.”
Ms Aspinall-Miles added that T contacted Hampshire Police on September 5, 2013, and officers took over the negotiations and arranged for a handover of cash on a motorway service station where Fraser was arrested.
Saleema Mahmood, defending, said Fraser was of “exemplary” good character and had not intended to harm T and X.
She said: “He did not wish to harm the complainant, all that he wished was to ensure that his role was adequately remunerated. He was acting in a way that was ill-thought out and reckless in its nature.
“There were no funds transferred and no suggestion the material was passed on to anybody.”
Sentencing Fraser, Judge Cutler told him: “The courts regard blackmail as an extremely unpleasant and nasty offence.
“All people, whether in the public eye or not, deserve protection from blackmails. Victims often become vulnerable, feel very alone and become distressed.
“When put in a position as T was here with truthful pictures, to be exposed puts him in a very difficult position.
“T did the right thing by going to the police and the police handled it excellently, which led to you being arrested with no money changing hands.”
Judge Cutler ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the images.
Fraser had been due to stand a retrial on the charge of blackmail but entered a plea of guilty to the offence of attempted blackmail which was accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/