Blackmailer posed online as ‘Kate’

Correctional Services worker avoids jail after demanding cash, nude photos

KITCHENER — A Cambridge man who pretended to be a woman on a dating site convinced two men to send him naked photos and then threatened to publish them online if they didn’t give him money or goods.

One of the victims handed over several thousand dollars.

Stuart Varga, 31, a chief information technology officer with Correctional Service Canada, pleaded guilty in Kitchener court on Tuesday to theft over $5,000 and two counts of harassment. The prosecution did not proceed on extortion charges.

Varga set up a Facebook account and then a Tinder dating account under the name of Kate Hunt. A Cambridge man was matched with Hunt on Tinder in September 2015, Crown prosecutor Craig Brannagan told court.

They conversed for several days and then exchanged explicit photos. The man sent Varga photos of his genitals while Varga, pretending to be Hunt, sent him photos of a naked woman. Varga asked the man to send more photos. He complied.

Varga then threatened to publish the photos online and distribute them throughout the man’s neighbourhood unless he sent $1,700 to a parcel pickup centre in Scarborough.

“Fearing that explicit photographs of him would be made public, (the man) did comply,” Brannagan said.

After receiving the cash, Varga continued to threaten to distribute the photos and demanded the man send 10 pairs of Saxx underwear, worth $380, to the same address. He complied.

Varga, still pretending to be Kate Hunt, then demanded the man shave off his pubic hair and send it to him along with another $3,300.

When the man said he didn’t have that much money, Varga increased the demand to $4,100.

The man complied, sending the money and his pubic hair.

Last March, the victim told police Hunt was extorting him.

That same month, another local man called police about Kate Hunt. The member of the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada said he was matched with Hunt on Tinder. He said they exchanged explicit photos and Hunt tried to extort him of his military kit, including his uniform and helmet.

The man refused and went to the police. When police tracked down Varga last August, he admitted he was behind the Kate Hunt account.

“These are very disturbing facts,” said Justice Elliott Allen, adding Varga manipulated, deceived and humiliated the two men. “He could go to jail for this.” But the judge noted Varga’s guilty pleas spared the victims “further humiliation” from testifying at a trial. That, combined with the fact Varga has no prior record and has made full restitution, helped convince Allen a no-jail joint submission from the prosecution and defence was reasonable.

Varga was fined $1,000 and put on probation for a year. He is banned from using dating sites and can have no contact with the victims.

He must also give a DNA sample for the national database, take any counselling recommended by his probation officer and not possess weapons for 10 years.