Woman admits blackmailing ‘sugar daddy’
Teenager threatened to expose him
A TEENAGER extorted money from a prominent businessman she met on a ‘sugar daddy’ website by threatening to expose their relationship, a court heard yesterday.
Aisling Ironside, 20, said she would release details of the married man’s infidelity to the media if he did not keep paying her.
After being given payments, including one for £1,200, she obtained a further £550 from him before he went to the police.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told the man was ‘someone who is not unknown’.
He was also alleged to have told Ironside that he had ‘friends in high places’, including the police.
The businessman can only be referred to as Mr A after he won a court order barring his identity from being published in relation to the case due to a ‘pressing social need’.
He took his legal fight to the High Court in his efforts to protect his identity.
Yesterday, the court was told that Ironside – then aged 17 – had met Mr A through the website SeekingArrangement.com. It advertises itself as ‘a new way for relationships to form and grow’.
The website says: ‘Sugar Babies and Sugar Daddies or Mommas both get what they want, when they want it. We provide relationships on your terms.
‘Where Sugar Babies enjoy a life of luxury by being pampered with fine dinners, exotic trips and allowances.
‘In turn Sugar Daddies or Mommas find beautiful members to accompany them at all times.’
The court heard Mr A had given Ironside £1,200 to decorate a new home, among other payments, before the sum for £550.
Fiscal depute Lynne Mannion told the court the pair had met on the website and that a ‘relationship’ formed between them.
She said: ‘He provided the accused with money previous to this particular occasion. On this occasion the accused asked for money and advised when he was reluctant to provide that money that she would expose his infidelity. There was then a payment of £550 transferred to her bank account.
‘However, the complainer then went to the police and advised them of the situation.’
Ironside, of Aberdeen, pleaded guilty to a charge of extortion committed between November 25 and November 29, 2016.
Defence solicitor Alex Burn insisted there had been ‘no intimacy’ between the pair.
But he did admit that at one stage during their ‘relationship’ Mr A had ‘taken photos of her naked breasts’.
He added: ‘She had gone to this website simply for friendship. She was 17 at the time and during one of the meetings he had taken the photos. He threatened that if she did not meet certain requirements he would show them with a view to clearly humiliating her.
‘She engaged in this idiotic plan to get money from him. He had given her money freely in the past.
‘On one view, he was an older man with more responsibilities than she had.
‘He was married and clearly had a reputation he has spent time and money trying to protect.
‘If anything, she’s as much a victim. She was young, naive and she was taken advantage of to some extent.’
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael fined Ironside £550 and said: ‘This all happened a long time ago and I’m told things have changed since then for you.’