Jilted lover of Bupa chief ’s partner guilty of smear campaign
THE chief executive of Bupa UK nearly lost his job when a banker, who had a one-night stand with his partner, waged a smear campaign against him, a court was told.
Paul Blight tried to destroy the career of David Hynam after being spurned by Mr Hynam’s long-term boyfriend following the one-off tryst.
Poole Magistrates’ Court heard the 41-year-old, who worked for banking giant JP Morgan, sent a malicious letter to the board of directors of the healthcare group falsely accusing Mr Hynam of a prolonged homophobic hate campaign against him.
Mr Hynam, who has an “extremely high profile role” at Bupa, was placed under investigation at work and faced losing his job over the matter.
Blight invented the allegations after being spurned by Ross Levine with whom who he had a one-night stand in February 2016.
He wanted to carry on the affair but Mr Levine told him he wasn’t interested as he had been with My Hynam for nine years.
Magistrates heard that when Blight bombarded Mr Levine with telephone calls and text messages, the victim blocked him.
But while he was away on a break in December 2016, Blight hand-delivered a letter to the house of Mr Levine’s mother.
Mr Levine did not hear from Blight again until April this year when he received an email which said “Call me or come and see me. I do not appreciate being attacked by you and your family for over 300 days”. Mr Levine had no idea what Blight was talking about and blocked that email address. But nearly two weeks later, Mr Hynam was called out of a meeting at work by the department that handles complaints and told serious allegations had been made against him.
Blight claimed in a letter that the hate crime had been going on for 320 days. Prosecutor Jennie Hopson-hill said: “On April 12, he sent a letter to Bupa stating Mr Hynam was involved in a homophobic and discrimination hate crime against him. The letter had a career threatening impact on Mr Hynam due to the very high-profile role he held. He was under investigation at one point as well but it didn’t go ahead.”
Blight was found guilty of harassment of Mr Levine over a four-month period and sending a letter conveying false information about Mr Hynam.
He was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £735 costs.
He also received a two-year restraining order banning him from contacting either Mr Levine or Mr Hynam, or going to their home in Bournemouth.
Blight, who represented himself during the hearing, said he planned to appeal.