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.
5. James Michael David Webber
James Michael David Webber was jailed for 13 years after being found guilty of child sex offences and blackmail. The 39-year-old was found guilty at York Crown Court on 24 July of seven offences including blackmail; two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; three counts of possession of indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornography. The court heard how, in May 2020, Webber manipulated and blackmailed a 12-year-old child to send explicit images of herself to him via SnapChat. He threatened to harm her family as he claimed he could see where she lived as her location was visible through the app. When the victim refused to send him further images, Webber callously distributed these images to others. | North Yorkshire Police
6. Bethan Guy
OnlyFans model Bethan Guy, has been found guilty after blackmailing a married subscriber by threatening to expose his activity to his wife. The 26-year-old, from King John Street, Swindon, met her victim on SnapChat in 2022 and threatened to tell his partner he had bought her pictures. She was given a two-year suspended sentence at the town's crown court on 15 October. | Facebook