Write About Everything

A man has this week been jailed for blackmailing and threatening a woman who stood him up on a date two years earlier with revenge porn photos.

Jake Collins, 21, from Filey, North Yorkshire, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

He tracked down the woman, 20, who rejected him because she’d met someone else and video contacted her under a fake profile.

For months Collins pestered the woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, to send him nude pictures of herself and persisted despite her repeatedly refusing. 

He then claimed he could pay her tens of thousands of pounds for the revealing photos and offered £6,000 for a ‘boob pic’, York Crown Court heard. 

Collins reached out to the woman again, under a new fake profile, after she continued to ignore his requests.

He claimed his original profile was hacked and that it was someone else demanding the nude pictures.

Prosecutor Austin Newman said: ‘Unfortunately, the complainant appears to have been taken in and the two started chatting via Facebook and he asked her to add him as a friend on Snapchat.

‘Once she did that, he then started requesting naked images of herself and eventually the complainant weakened and sent the defendant ten pictures and videos showing her exposed breasts and genitalia.’

In response, Collins sent her a full frontal of naked man which was supposed to him but was a fake image.

He later messaged her ‘send me the pics and I will send money’ as the woman realised she had been sent £10 via PayPal.

Shortly after Collins sent a Facebook message to her new boyfriend saying ‘she had screwed him and she had until 3pm that day to reimburse the defendant,’ the prosecutor added.

The young woman told her partner what happened and he took a screenshot of the message. 

Throughout May and August Collins continued to pester her for the money and sent her two of the naked photos, threatening to publish them unless she paid. 

The couple then contacted the police who arrested Collins and seized his mobile phone, which he had been using to target the woman.

She said in statement read to the court: ‘I feel upset and angry I had let this happen to me.

‘I could not understand why anyone, particularly a so-called friend, could do this to me.

”I could not sleep because of the worry my intimate images would be seen by other people.

‘I lost my appetite and did not feel like eating.What happened to me has had a devastating effect on my life in general.

‘I feel my personality has changed emotionally towards people I have known for years such as my acquaintances and family.

‘I do no think I will ever be able to get over that sense of panic you first feel when the threat was made to send my personal images to people close to me.’

Mr Newman said Collins told police he had ‘met the complainant a couple of years ago’ and first messaged her on Facebook under a false name in September 2019, to which she replied with a wave emoji.

He added: ‘Then the defendant replied that he had access to tens of thousands of pounds and asked the complainant if she wanted some money.

‘She jokingly replied he should send her some.Once he had drawn her into the conversation on Facebook he sent her a message saying if she sent him a picture of her breasts he would send her £6,000.

‘She thought he was joking and sent him a thumbs up emoji. He took that as a green light to go further.He sent her sexual messages asking for naked images of herself.

‘Asked why he had done it, he suggested he was not motivated by financial gain or because the complainant had rejected his advances.’

Graham Parkin, mitigating, begged for mercy, adding: ‘He still cannot explain the rationale or mentality of what he did.

‘He fully understands the folly of his actions and that the impact on the complainant has been quite serious.’

But Judge Simon Hickey said: ‘Blackmail is regarded as one of the most serious crimes.The Lord Chief Justice has described it in the past as “murder of the soul”.

‘Unfortunately, you were known to this young woman. You contacted her unsolicited. Once you had drawn her in you offered her £6,000 for “boob pics”.

‘She thought that was a complete joke and gave a thumbs up.Unfortunately, you took this as a green light and you pestered her for further photographs.

‘Unfortunately, she had then been “taken in” by his hacking story and given him the photographs, two of which he later used to demand his £10 back.

‘The implication was “pay up” or these intimate images would be revealed to the world.’

Collins admitted to blackmail and porn revenge offences between May 2020 and August 2020. 

He was jailed for 18 months, with half to be served, and made the subject of an indefinite restraining order.