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Brits convicted for blackmail in the UK 2024: List includes men who targeted children

These are the men and women who were put behind bars for blackmail in 2024.

Blackmail, defined under Section 21 of the Theft Act 1968, involves making unwarranted demands with menaces to gain personally or cause loss to another. Conviction for this offence can lead to a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment.

For example, Grant Derek Giblin was arrested after an investigation found he had been using apps to contact children, aged between 10 and 16, and befriend them to gain trust and encourage them to send images of themselves. Once he had received these, Giblin would blackmail his victims into performing sexual acts on themselves before again sending the content to him.

But the case involving sick Northern Ireland man Alexander McCartney was one of the most shocking cases yet, where he pretended to be a teenage girl to befriend, then abuse and blackmail children around the world, often sharing images with other paedophiles.

Some of the children were as young as four. Some had never told anyone what they had been through - until police knocked on their door. McCartney gradually admitted 185 charges including manslaughter after a 12-year-old girl he was abusing took her own life. He has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years.

Here are some of the most notable blackmail cases that have resulted in prison sentences.

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