Man jailed for $300,000 blackmail of babysitter

A 30-year-old man who tried to extort $300,000 from his former babysitter over an allegation of historical sexual abuse was sentenced to 11 months in prison yesterday.

The man, who was granted permanent name suppression partly to protect his family, had earlier admitted blackmail.

In the High Court at Nelson, Justice Wild said the defendant visited the victim at his workplace in January and accused him of sexually molesting him when he was much younger.

When the victim denied the allegation, the defendant told him to "find the money" or he would tell police of the abuse.

The defendant phoned the man two weeks later and repeated the threats, telling him to deposit the cash into a bank account. The blackmail victim then contacted the police.

When confronted by police, the defendant confessed to blackmailing the man. He acknowledged that he should have contacted the police with his allegations rather than try to extort money from the victim.

Justice John Wild said the offending was "out of character" for the man who had excellent qualifications and no previous convictions.

"I accept your explanation. You had bottled up your anger about what you say the victim did to you. You explained that now you have children of your own the idea of sexual abuse became totally unacceptable to you and you decided to do something about it."

But Justice Wild said the court viewed blackmail as "insidious and vicious".

He sentenced the defendant to 11 months in prison, taking into account the man's remorsefulness and early guilty plea. He gave the man leave to apply for home detention and deferred the start of the sentence for two months.

- NZPA