Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Former Comets player tried to blackmail man
A FORMER Dundee Comets ice hockey player who tried to blackmail a man — threatening to exposehimasapaedophile if he didn’t pay him £200 — has been jailed.
Robbie Brown, 26, of Rosebank Street, admitted attempted extortion when he appeared at the city’s sheriff court.
Brown tried to get his victim to give him £200 by threatening to tell the man’s family and friends he had been involved in sexual activity with a child.
He admitted that on July 3, he placed a note on the windscreen of a car, repeatedly sent messages through social media, and made a telephone call to his victim’s house.
Fiscal depute Claire Rowan told the court that at 8am on July 3 the complainer went out to work and found a note on his car stating: “I know what you did 14 years ago I’m going to expose you.”
He thought no more of it as he thought it was a prank and discarded the note.
On checking his emails after work, the victim found a message from Brown on his Facebook Messenger app, which he thought was odd as he had only met him twice and rarely spoken to him.
The note said if Brown didn’t receive £200, Brown would come round to the man’s house with “three Satan Slaves” to “expose” him. Brown also threatened to phone the police, tell everyone in his workplace and post his picture on Facebook.
He also sent further messages demanding he pay the £200 — telling him he would lose everything in his life if he didn’t pay up.
The accused then phoned the victim’s house and made the same allegation to the man’s wife that her husband had sexually abused a child. Challenged by the victim’s wife as to why he would try to blackmail her husband if the allegation was true, he replied: “I’m just trying to scare him to see how he feels.”
Police were contacted and the accused was traced at his home in Westcroft Road. When questioned, he said to police: “I asked him for that money. That would have been proof that he did it. That would have been evidence.”
Solicitor Ian Myles told the court Brown had been given information by a child and that there was an allegation.
But Sheriff George Way said there was no evidence to suggest the allegation against the man was true.
He added: “Even if he was acting in a vigilante manner, making threats and demanding money, what kind of message does that send out to society?”
He jailed Brown for five months.