Leeds Crown Court docket has jailed a Yorkshire policewoman who posed as a pedophile hunter to extort cash from a intercourse offense suspect. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
Leeds Crown Court docket has sentenced a South Yorkshire Police (SYP) officer who posed as a pedophile searching vigilante group to extort cash from a intercourse offense suspect to over three years in jail.
PC Marie Thompson, 29, who admitted she ran the scheme to cowl her playing money owed, acquired her sentence of 40 months in jail on Thursday. Adorned ex-constable Steve Perkins took to X with information of the sentence:
Thompson’s ruse started when she headed up a SYP investigation in 2022 that interviewed however later launched a person believed to be in possession of indecent photos of minors.
In line with courtroom experiences, the ex-PC used a faux electronic mail handle posing as a part of a pedophile searching group to aim to blackmail the person shortly after he was launched.
we due to this fact ask you to make a donation”
“Data has been handed to us that you’ve been arrested for media involving youngsters,” the menace started. “As an organisation which works to guard youngsters from folks reminiscent of your self we due to this fact ask you to make a donation” to “make sure that info stays between you and us.”
Her request was for £3,500 ($4,597).
The e-mail signed “Paedophile Hunters” offered financial institution particulars and a requirement to pay up or have his alleged crime made public. The person and his spouse determined in opposition to paying the cash and contacted the police.
It was solely in 2023, when Thompson left her SYP staff and her caseload acquired transferred, that one other officer stumbled onto her ruse. When the brand new officer visited the sufferer and adopted up on his blackmail claims, they discovered a textual content message to the sufferer’s household on the identical quantity Thompson used on her police vetting kind, resulting in her subsequent arrest and arraignment.
