Legal News

A court has heard how a divorced man threatened to publicly embarrass his ex-wife and ruin her employment chances by making public revenge porn after a dispute over child maintenance payments.

The Daily Mail reports that 51-year-old Gerald McCarthy from Crowthorne in Berkshire sent an image to his ex-wife Amanda Mortimer – the image was a still from a video which McCarthy had made as “insurance” without his wife’s knowledge.

It is alleged he sent her the still to try and blackmail her into telling a court that she no longer needed his child maintenance payments, Reading Crown Court heard.

As well as threatening to publish the image, McCarthy also warned his ex-wife he would “make it his mission” to ensure any attempts at selling their former matrimonial home fell through, the court heard.

The couple had been together for 20 years and had three children. However, the marriage broke down in acrimonious circumstances in 2008 and Mrs Mortimer has since remarried.

As part of the divorce settlement, McCarthy was ordered to pay £75 a week in child maintenance to Mrs Mortimer.

Mrs Mortimer told the court that by October 2012, her ex-husband had fallen in arrears – and she had agreed to write off some of the debt already.

McCarthy told his ex-wife that he would publish an image taken from the private video if she did not agree to tell a court that they had reached an out-of-court settlement over child maintenance payments.

He had sent his ex-wife the image “disguised” in a birthday card. Mrs Mortimer told the court that she “instinctively” knew it was from McCarthy. She had opened it the day it arrived, rather than waiting to open it with the rest of her birthday cards the following day and in front of her children, she said.

The photo was printed on a piece of card – along with a typed note warning it would be distributed and a handwritten note on a separate piece of paper.

The prosecution told the court it was not disputed that the note was in McCarthy's handwriting.

The court heard the note reads:

“Don't think you will ever be able to sell my house for anything like the market value. You've been robbing me every month for maintenance. This shows how greedy you are.
“Unless you contact the court and say, ‘I have paid you in full in an out-of- court settlement’, I'll make it my mission to cause you so many problems if you try to ever sell my old house.”

The court heard that one sale of the house had fallen through after McCarthy contacted the estate agent handling the sale and said there were problems with it. However, a full structural survey later carried out showed there to be nothing wrong with the property.

The court heard McCarthy is not computer literate and would not have been able to produce the typed message sent with the written note.

McCarthy denies two counts of blackmail.

McCarthy the second charge because the indictment reads that he made “unwarranted” demands to stop the child maintenance payments –
McCarthy claims his demands are warranted, the court heard.

The trial continues.

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