Yahoo News He told Good Samaritan 'give me £500 or I'll tell police you raped me'
A heartless blackmailer threatened to falsely accuse a Good Samaritan of raping him if he did not hand over £500.
Stephen Challis, 24, had fallen on hard times, and was offered a place to stay by a man he had befriended at a support centre in St Helens on December 7 2022. He called the man the following day and asked to take up the offer, but when the man arrived at their meeting place he found Challis had taken the liberty of bringing his girlfriend with him.
The man told Challis, of Adcote Road, Dovecot, that he could not take in the woman too, and so the couple left together.
READ MORE: Woman's horror as she realises girl's 'red scarf' is actually blood
READ MORE: Drug dealer accidentally gave himself away when he saved man's life
At Liverpool Crown Court today, April 30, prosecutor Frank Dillon said: "The defendant then phoned the complainant numerous times to express his unhappiness at the complainant’s refusal to let his girlfriend stay at his address. Eventually, the defendant told the complainant that he had put his girlfriend on a train and then threatened that he would get the complainant “done for rape.”
"This threat was repeated in several subsequent calls, and when the complainant told the defendant that no-one would believe him, the defendant replied that he would tell the police that the complainant had worn a condom, hence the absence of DNA."
Challis demanded £500 from the man, or else he would carry out his threat.
That same day, the man also received a call from a woman who claimed she was a Humberside police officer. She told him Challis had made a statement that the man had raped him, and had also assaulted a 13-year-old girl. She then asked the man to withdraw £250 from his bank account and leave it in a bush at the end of his road, where four police officers would be waiting to arrest whoever collected the cash.
The man, believing the woman was a real police officer, agreed to leave out the money that Saturday. He returned to the support centre the following day, Friday December 9, where he told a member of staff about Challis' threats. The staff member then called the police.
Meanwhile, the victim carried out Challis' accomplice's demands. He withdrew £250 and put it in a plastic bag, which he placed under the bush in the early ours of Saturday, December 10. He then phoned Challis and told him where the money was.
The victim returned to the area at around 10am and found the money was still there. While he was there, the phony female police officer phoned him again and told to meet her at the Hub Café in St Helens. He made his way to St Helens centre, but could not find the café. When he returned to the bush, the money was gone, and his calls to both Challis and the "police officer" went unanswered.
In a statement read to the court, the victim said: "Since this incident I have been suffering with my mental health. This has made my health decline quite badly. I have flashbacks about the incident, and I'm constantly thinking about what they did to me and why they did it. I'm now very hesitant to speak to people I don't know I have lost a lot of trust in people and I feel isolated as I do not go out much because of this."
Challis pleaded guilty to blackmail. He appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today from prison. His female accomplice could not be traced.
Julian Nutter, defending said: "It's a pretty shabby affair. In the background he was highly addicted to cannabis. He had been since 16. He had very shortly before this been told by his mother that she had been diagnosed as being terminally ill with cancer. He had nowhere to live and he was in a mess. Since then it's clear that he has sought rehabilitation for his cannabis habit. He's now three months clear of taking cannabis and he feels a lot better."
Judge David Swinnerton said: "The offence was a mean one. The man you set out to blackmail, you were originally offered help by him, offered somewhere you could stay. You decided to repay that kindness by trying to blackmail him. The sum you sought was relatively modest and the amount received was even smaller. But you persisted in this blackmail over a couple of days."
He added: "The treats that you made were particularly nasty because they were threats to falsely accuse him of rape. When he insisted no one would believe it, you gave excuses that there would be no evidence because he used a condom."
He sentenced Challis to two years in prison, and made a restraining order banning him from contacting the victim.
