Blackmail - sexual
Date Updated: January 2012
Title: Theft
Offence: Blackmail - sexual
Legislation: S21(1) Theft Act 1968
Mode of Trial: Indictable Only
Statutory Limitations & Maximum Penalty: 14 years
Culpability & Harm
- Planning.
- Sophistication.
- More than one offender.
- Repeated demands.
- Target Vulnerable Individuals.
- Threat carried out - material sent.
- Substantial amount demanded.
- Money paid.
- Allegations true.
Aggravating & Mitigating Factors
None
Relevant Sentencing Guidelines (If Any)
R v Hadjou [1989] 11 Cr. App. R. (S) 29
In the calendar of criminal offences blackmail was one of the ugliest and most vicious because it involved what one found so often, attempted murder of the soul. Deterrence was perhaps the most important part of the sentence in such a case.
Relevant Sentencing Case Law
R v Christie [1990] 12 Cr. App. R. (S) 540 Current Sentencing Practice B6-63A07
Pleaded guilty to blackmail The defendant saw a photo of a stranger and threatened to inform the papers that he was a homosexual (which he was not). Offence carefully researched and executed but little mental anguish. 2 years.
Lloyd L.J.: From a sentencing point of view, the typical case of blackmail perhaps falls somewhere between robbery and simple theft in terms of seriousness. It is usually less serious than robbery because no violence is involved nor the threat of any violence. On the other hand it is clearly more serious than theft because of the mental anguish which is so often caused.
R v Hollinworth and Yates [1994] 15 Cr. App. R. (S) 258 Current Sentencing Practice B6-63A15
Pleaded guilty to blackmail. The defendants sent notes to a man aged 63, threatening to accuse him of offences against boys unless he was paid. Significant mental anguish as the demands were carefully planned and repeated even though the complainant was not homosexual. 3 years.
R v Smith [1993] 14 Cr. App. R. (S) 786 Current Sentencing Practice B6-63A11
The defendant threatened to send photographs of the complainant in a massage parlour to his wife. Considerable distress to the complainant. 30 months.
R v Daniels [2002] 1 Cr. App. R. (S) 100 (at 443); EWCA Crim. 1843
The defendant threatened to make completely unfounded allegations that the complainant had been cottaging. A victim is more likely to succumb of the allegations are true. 2 years.
R v Cutbill [1982] 4 Cr. App. R. (S) 1
Convicted of two counts of blackmail. He had on two occasions picked up a prostitute and then demanded money, pretending to be a police officer and threatening to prosecute the woman concerned. 1 year.
R v Scanlon [1984] 6 Cr. App. R. (S) 199
Pleaded guilty to two counts of blackmail, among other offences. On two occasions the defendant met men in a public lavatory, stole money and demanded a money under the threat that he would inform the complainant's wife. The appellant was on probation at the time for similar offences. 7 years.
R v Burche [1985] 7 Cr. App. R. (S) 379
Pleaded guilty to two counts of blackmail and one of theft. On two occasions the defendant posed as a police officer, purported to arrest cottagers and released them on payment of a fee. 6 years.
R v Hadjou (1989) 11 Cr. App. R. (S) 29
Convicted of blackmail. The defendant who had been in a relationship with the complainant threatened to send her employer and family a pornographic video of the complainant unless she paid him £2K. Viscous and ugly crime. "Murder of the soul". 4 years.
R v Stone (1989) 11 Cr. App. R. (S) 176
Pleaded guilty to three counts of blackmail. The defendant threatened to disclose the complainant's homosexual conduct unless he was paid. 3 years.
R v Read [1996] 2 Cr. App. R. (S) 240
Pleaded guilty to blackmail. The defendant wrote to a clergyman and demanded a £7K loan threatening to make false allegations that he was homosexuality. Remorse and personal mitigation. 21 months.
R v Caulfield (1993) 14 Cr. App. R. (S) 569
Pleaded guilty to blackmail. The appellant wrote to a married woman, threatening to disclose to her husband her affair with another man unless she paid £500 or provided sexual favours. Traumatic for the victim. 3 years.
R v Lloyd [1995] 16 Cr. App. R. (S) 1
Pleaded guilty to blackmail. The defendant was paid £20K to prevent the disclose photographs taken in a robbery of the complainant with a married man. Money paid. 7 years.
R v St. Q. [2002] 1 Cr. App. R. (S) 99 (at 440); [2001] EWCA Crim. 1821
Convicted of blackmail and pleaded guilty to an unrelated indecent assault The defendant threatened to send a video tape of his former wife indulging in group sex to her parents unless she compromised their divorce proceedings. The complainant sold her story to the papers. The defendant believed that the compromise was justified and the complainant had been a willing participant in the group sex. 15 months.
R v Miah [2003] 1 Cr. App. R. (S) 75 (at 379)
Pleaded guilty to 11 counts of blackmail and perverting the course of justice. The defendant sent pornographic videos to company directors, and threatened to send disclose them with their fingerprints on unless they paid £5K. Carefully planned offences involving, multiple victims and conducted over a number of months. 4 years.
AG's Reference No. 40 of 2002 (John Alexander Collard) [2003] 1 Cr. App. R. (S) 98
Convicted of six counts of blackmail. The defendant befriended a retired gentleman and threatened to claim that the gentleman had indecently assaulted his girlfriend. He received 74,000 pounds from his victim who subsequently committed suicide. 4 years increased to 8 years. 4 years increased to 8 years.
R v Mason [1995] 16 Cr. App. R. (S) 968
The defendant threatened to distribute sexually provocative photos of the complainant unless she returned certain property. Genuine stress. 4 months.
Ancillary Orders:
- Restitution
- Compensation
- Specified serious offence within Schedule 1 to SCA 2007 - serious crime prevention order can be made
