A man has admitted blackmailing young women online by threatening to post naked photos of them if they didn't send him more.
Photo: Pixabay
Christopher John Blackwood, 24, had been due to stand trial next week, but in the High Court in Auckland he admitted six charges of blackmail, one of causing harm by posting the pictures and one of intimidation.
According to court documents, Blackwood sent four of the five young women photos of large piles of cash, promising them money if they sent him naked photos of themselves. One of them was 16 years old.
When the first woman sent him photos, he asked for more, threatening to post the first lot online.
He followed it up with a photo of a finger with a frowning face drawn on it and a noose tied around it.
Blackwood offered another young woman he met on Facebook $1500 for photos.
But over the following year Blackwood continued to threaten the woman, demanding more pictures and threatening to post her photos online.
When she refused Blackwood posted photos on Facebook.
He also threatened another woman that he would harm himself.
He sent her disturbing photos of himself and again threatened to harm himself if she did not send him the intimate photos.
She complied and he again threatened to post the photos online if she did not send more.
Blackwood met another woman on dating website Tinder.
She also sent him photos of herself and he again threatened to harm himself when she declined to send more.
He then told her that her career would go down the drain when he posted the photos online.
Distraught, the woman called police. While on the phone to police, Blackwood began posting the photos online.
He told the woman that he knew where she lived and made a threatening comment. The woman called police.
When police caught up with him, Blackwood denied posting photos online and said he had a bad memory.
He declined to hand over his Facebook passwords, preventing police from checking whether he had images stored on his account.
Facebook has since disabled two of his accounts. Police are also asking the court for an order to destroy his cellphones.
In court yesterday, his lawyer Ish Jayanandan said Blackwood had seen a psychiatrist and was hoping to get treatment.
Restorative justice was raised but Justice Hinton said she did not think it would be appropriate.
Crown prosecutor Evan McCaughan said the victims were still worried the photos were out there and restorative justice would not help that.
Blackwood will be sentenced in March next year. He is on bail but forbidden to access the internet.
