Wirral three jailed for paedophile blackmail conspiracy

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Three members of a family who blackmailed a convicted paedophile and obtained more than £50,000 were together put behind bars for more than 21 years.

The Crown Court at Liverpool heard that after the victim's conviction for indecently assaulting young boys in 1983, he turned his life around and was in good employment.

But everything changed after social services revealed his criminal past to Wirral couple Kerry Edwards and her husband Leslie Johnson in June 2007 as part of their statutory duty.

Keith Sutton, prosecuting, told how over the next year the couple and Johnson’s brother Edward Lawler threatened, intimidated and blackmailed him into handing over his life savings.

During the conspiracy, the trio sent “sackfuls” of threatening letters, warning their victim he would “leave in a body bag” if he refused to pay up.

He was also marched to an cash point into the middle of the night to hand over cash and ordered to pay for a flat screen TV and a child’s motorbike.

When he eventually ran out of money to meet their demands, a “wholly put up” allegation of child sexual abuse was made against him to police and he was arrested.

It was only when he was released without charge that he finally revealed the plot against him.

Judge David Boulton said, “It was only when he was released he had the courage to produce sackfuls of letters which showed precisely what you had been up to over that year or so. It was little short of despicable.

“The threats were not only to reveal his previous convictions, which he had managed over the years to put behind him, but to threaten him with violence.

“One graphically put it that if he did not pay he would ‘leave in a body bag’.”

Judge Boulton told the gang blackmail was one of the “most vicious crimes in the calendar of criminal offences”.

Johnson, 32, of Naples Road, Wallasey, and Lawler, 38, of Balls Road, Prenton, who were found guilty after a trial, were both jailed for eight years each.

Edwards, 31, of Rappart Road, Wallasey, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail, was jailed for five years and four months.

Mr Sutton told the court how a statement from their diabetic victim revealed how their crimes had left him financially ruined and afraid to leave his house.

He had become friends with Johnson and Lawler after moving to Merseyside in 2003 and had even leant them up to £10,000.

But Judge Boulton said that the family had “no prospect whatsoever” of repaying the cash and then after learning of his background used it as a “weapon” against him.

Defence barristers told how they maintain their denials, with Johnson putting the blame on his wife.

But Judge Boulton said they had been found guilty on the “most powerful of evidence”.

Fingerprint evidence revealed that Edwards had written many of the threatening letters, but Judge Boulton said he suspected she was not the “instigator”.