Prostitute blackmails client

Sinclair said if he didn't do what she asked, she would send photos of them together to his wife's workplace

A prostitute extorted $340 in hush money from a former client after she threatened to tell his wife of their liaisons.

During her appearance in the New Plymouth District Court yesterday, Rachael Louise Sinclair pleaded guilty to a representative charge of blackmail.

The summary of facts said the 48-year-old worked as a prostitute and the victim, who has been given permanent name suppression by the court, had engaged her services during the month of November 2016.

At month’s end, the man told Sinclair he could no longer see her.

In response, the defendant sent him a text, demanding that he give her money.

Sinclair said if he didn’t do what she asked, she would send photos of them together to his wife’s workplace along with distributing the images around the area where he lived. The victim only had $140 cash available, which he gave to Sinclair.

He then made two further payments of $100 in the following days, dropping the cash into her letterbox.

Once she received the money, Sinclair told the man she had destroyed the photographs. There was no further contact between the two until July 18, 2017, when they saw each other in public.

The next day, the victim received an abusive text from Sinclair, where she accused him of ignoring her.

Over the next two days, Sinclair continued to abuse the man via text message.

She then re-issued her threats to ‘‘tell the victim’s wife everything’’ if he didn’t give her money, the summary of facts said.

At this point, the victim went to police. Following her guilty plea, Judge Chris Sygrove remanded Sinclair on bail to re-appear for sentencing on May 9.