Gay lover jailed over threats and cash demands

COURT: Victim handed over more than £81,000 to sex partner Bradley Long

A man who threatened to expose his gay lover’s cocaine fuelled sex life to his family if he did not hand over tens of thousands of pounds in cash was jailed for two-and-a-half years yesterday.

Bradley Long denied demanding £36,500 from the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and threatening him with violence and exposure to his relatives.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard that the man paid over a total of £81,306.01 to Long and his associates over the course of four years.

Long claimed that cash was to pay for their regular sex and cocaine gettogethers and the Crown withdrew a charge that the payments were part of an extortion scheme.

The victim, who told the court the pair would indulge in all night sex sessions after taking class A drugs, said the plot only ended when he reported Long to the police over a demand for another £36,500 after his savings had been cleaned out and he had taken tens of thousands of pounds in loans.

That led him to call in police who arrested Long after witnesses said he was found banging on the man’s door demanding entry.

Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told a jury: “I’m sure that the evidence you have heard probably shocked you and gave you an insight to a world that is completely alien to you.”

The victim told how he met Long while he was working in London more than 10 years ago in a “gay cruising area”.

They immediately began a sexual relationship but lost touch when the man moved to Scotland. But Long later contacted him on Facebook and they began seeing each other again.

Long would then bring cocaine that they would share during their visits, and would ask for payment for the drugs afterwards.

However, the court heard that over time the cash demands mounted and mounted until the victim was being asked for thousands upon thousands of pounds by Long, cleaning out his savings and forcing him to take loans to pay.

Meanwhile he was allegedly being threatened with violence, having his property trashed and with the details of his drug taking and sex life being leaked to his family.

The man said: “I was an utter fool. I kept forgiving him and thinking that because I’d shown him I didn’t have any money left he wouldn’t ask for more. “The last time it was £36,000. “He would refuse to leave the property until I gave him money. I felt intimidated.

“After I refused to pay the £36,000 he wanted he kept texting saying something would happen.

“That really shook me up. It was a threatening tone. But it was also almost like he was excited by it.”

The court was read a transcript of a voicemail, said to have been left by Long, that said he would tell the man’s family that he was a “beast”, reveal his sexual relationship with another man and disclose his drug use to relatives.

The man added: “I had no money left. I’d taken lots of loans. There was nothing left, I was distraught.”

Defence advocate Johnathan Crowe said: “The complainer has come out with a cock and bull story about Bradley Long extorting money from him but it simply isn’t the case.

“They got together possibly hundreds of times for sex and drugs.”

Long, 31, of London, denied one charge of extortion, one of attempted extortion, one of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner and two under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The offences were said to have taken place between May 30 2011 and March 9 2015 at addresses in Angus. The charge of extortion and a drugs charge were dropped at the close of the Crown case.

A jury of six men and nine women took two hours to find Long guilty of the attempted extortion, threatening and abusive behaviour and supplying cocaine.

Sheriff Tom Hughes jailed Long for two and a half years and said: “You have been convicted of very serious offences.

“A custodial sentence is inevitable.”

Jailed: Bradley Long.