Police trap blackmail trio over naked pictures of Leeds student

POLICE set up a trap to catch three blackmailers who threatened to send intimate photos of a student to her family and friends if she did not pay them.

Their victim, who had been receiving the threats over her mobile phone, indicated she would hand over £3,500 to keep the pictures secret but when the trio took a taxi from Rochdale to Leeds to collect they found officers waiting instead.

Leeds Crown Court heard the student had no idea who was sending her the messages but was vulnerable because she knew some images of her naked were in existence and was terrified they would be distributed.

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Carmel Pearson, prosecuting, said when younger, the woman had sent the images via a webcam to her then boyfriend.

When she suddenly got an anonymous message in February this year threatening to send such images to her family and university friends she feared that they had got into the hands of someone else.

Over the following days she received further messages and was desperate to stop her family finding out about them but the court was told she bravely went to the police and told them what had been happening.

It was the police who had the idea of enticing the blackmailer to Leeds where it was revealed it had been three young men who were involved in the plot.

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Officers learned the female student had confided in a friend about the images. The friend was known to one of the blackmailers and it is thought he found out in some way from her, or via her computer.

One of the trio told police it had all started as a prank which, the court heard, they now accepted went too far.

Rohim Ali, 20, his brother Shakir, 19, both of Ranley Grove, Rochdale, and Jordan Lennon, 20, of Green Meadow, Rochdale, were each sent to a young offender institution for 18 months after they admitted blackmail.

Sentencing them, Recorder David Bradshaw said it may well have started as “a joke or a laugh” but had quickly changed to a serious criminal offence and the complainant must have been “out of her mind with worry” about whether the pictures came to light.

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Fortunately she had the “courage and good sense” to notify the police so they were able to act and no money actually changed hands. But he said the impact of such an offence often lasted years and in her case had clearly had a severe and distressing effect.

Michael Walsh, for Rohim Ali, said it had started as a joke but “to say his decision making was poor and tasteless is an understatement.”

He had enjoyed the adrenaline rush as the enterprise snowballed in its “despicable and unsavoury nature”.

They never had seen any of the images nor had possession of them and had clearly not thought through their actions since when they arrived at McDonalds in Kirkstall Road, Leeds, they did not have anything to exchange for the money.

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Richard Reed, for Shakir Ali, said their lack of professionalism was demonstrated by the fact there had been no attempt to disguise the telephone number they were using or bank account details given at one stage.

John Bachelor, for Lennon, said he now understood the distress and trauma they had caused the victim which he “deeply regrets.”