Man, 23, blackmailed woman and posted chats

AMAN threatened to publish intimate details about the sex life of a woman he met on Facebook unless she paid him, a court has heard.

The mum was so worried about what he might do that she handed over money to her blackmailer – who then demanded more cash.

Jackson Courtney Stewart Brown taunted his victim by telling her the police would not believe her if she reported matters, and claiming blackmail was only a minor offence for which he could not go to jail.

Sending him to prison for a total of two years and four months, a judge told him he had been wrong about that.

Swansea Crown Court heard that Brown – who also goes by the name Jones – became a Facebook friend of the woman in the summer of 2018.

Dean Pulling, prosecuting, said there was an “exchange of messages” between the parties over the following weeks, though contact was “irregular”.

Towards the end of 2018 Brown posted disparaging comments about the woman on Facebook, and when she asked him to remove them he told her there would be “a price” to pay if she wanted them to “go away”.

The court heard 23-year-old Brown then began making demands for money, saying he would post online a copy of conversations they had had which contained personal information about the woman.

When she accused him of blackmail, he replied: “I can’t go to prison for blackmail, it’s a fine. Hahaha.”

The prosecutor said Brown continued to demand money, telling the woman in one message: “Send me £75 in the next five minutes. That’s the time frame – stick to it or it will double.”

When the woman pleaded with him, saying she had two young children, he told her the police would not believe her if she went to them.

The woman paid the money – but Brown then demanded more.

Mr Pulling said: “She hoped that would be an end of it – but as is often the way, it was not.”

Brown continued to demand more money via messages on Facebook and the messaging service Snapchat, at which point the woman went to the police.

Brown then posted the private conversations online.

The court heard police made “numerous efforts” to try to find Brown, including working with other police forces and checking bank details.

He was eventually arrested on May 11 this year.

In his subsequent interview, he said he had been drunk when he posted the messages, and he could not remember what he had done.

He was bailed to Llanelli Magistrates’ Court on May 30 but failed to turn up and went on the run, eventually being arrested again in relation to other matters on July 17.

Mr Pulling said that while speaking to his solicitor, Rhys Davies, at Swansea Central police station the defendant began punching the walls of the consultation room, and had to be taken to Neath Port Talbot Hospital, where bone fractures were diagnosed and treated.

Brown’s arm was put in a cast, and later that evening he was escorted to a waiting police van to be returned to the station – however, because of the cast he was not put in handcuffs and as he got to the vehicle he made a run for it.

Brown, of Tanycoed Road, Clydach, had previously pleaded guilty to making unwarranted demands for money with menaces – commonly known as blackmail – failing to answer bail, and escaping lawful custody.

He appeared in the dock via videolink for sentencing.

He made a number of personal comments about his victim and her lifestyle while on the videolink until the judge stopped him.

The court heard Brown has several convictions for domestic assaults on partners, as well as for theft matters, possession of drugs with intent to supply, and burglaries.

Huw Davies, for Brown, said his client had been living in Neath at the time of the offending, and working fulltime in a car sales business.

He said the defendant “bitterly regrets” what he did, and wished to apologise to the victim.

Judge Paul Thomas QC described the blackmail as a “despicable offence”, and told Brown he had been wrong when he told his victim it was not a serious matter.

He said: “You are a thief, you are a burglar, you are a drug dealer, you are a serial woman-beater – quite why you think you are entitled to occupy the moral high ground is a mystery.”

Giving the defendant credit for his guilty pleas, the judge sentenced him to two years for blackmail, and to four months each for breaching bail and escaping lawful custody – the last two sentences will run concurrently with each other but consecutively with the blackmail sentence, making an overall sentence of two years and four months.