JAIL FOR MAN AFTER MUM BLACKMAIL

£300 demand on snaps of girl in underwear

A MAN who demanded a woman hand him £300 or he would “plaster” pictures of her daughter over Facebook was jailed yesterday.

Travis Keane, 30, was handed a six-month prison term after he admitted blackmail and possessing a 12,000-volt stun gun.

Belfast Crown Court heard the complainant contacted police on May 21 to say she received a text from the defendant.

It read: “How about you get me £300 by the end of the week or I plaster your little girl over Facebook with photos she thought I would be in to.”

During the hearing it emerged

Keane had stayed at the woman’s house as a guest and her daughter had sent him images of herself in her underwear.

A lawyer said instead of deleting the photos, Keane used them as “leverage to blackmail the girl’s mother”.

Police then visited a hostel in Belfast where Keane had been asked to leave and it emerged a stun gun was found in his room.

He was arrested and admitted sending the message but said the woman owed him £300.

However, this claim was not accepted by prosecutors although they accepted there was nothing to suggest the stun gun was used for anything improper. A defence lawyer said it was “abundantly apparent” Keane didn’t request the images and he told the girl “I am showing your Ma this conversation”.

He added the accused, whose was address was given as HMP Magilligan, kept the photos and then made the “foolhardy decision to recover money he said was owed to him”.

Telling Keane his actions were “shameful”, Judge Stephen Fowler described the blackmail and stun gun possession as “serious”.

He said he accepted the former offence was “opportunistic” but added: “It’s fortunate for him that he didn’t follow it through with further menaces or threats.”