Sex worker and husband jailed over client blackmail

Daniel Williamson and Leanne Potter-Williamson were sentenced on Thursday at Cambridge Crown Court

A sex worker and her husband who threatened to expose potential clients unless they paid them money have been jailed after admitting blackmail.

Leanne Potter-Williamson, 39, of Crowland, Lincolnshire, met men online "selling adult services", Cambridge Crown Court heard.

Nearly all the threats to the victims came from her husband, Daniel Williamson, 40, from Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, Judge Philip Grey said at their sentencing on Thursday.

Potter-Williamson was sentenced to three years and one month in prison, while Williamson received seven years and four months.

The pair admitted their guilt at earlier hearings, with Potter-Williamson pleading guilty to three counts of blackmail between August and October 2023.

Williamson pleaded guilty to 10 counts of blackmail, each concerning a different victim, between August 2023 and January 2024.

Payments sent

Prosecutor Neil King told the court Potter-Williamson "would meet men online selling adult services" and they would receive "threats of disclosure unless they paid money".

The threats would come from Williamson, "but not exclusively", he said.

Potter-Williamson told one man "she knew his partner and he would have to pay to keep her quiet", the court heard.

The court was told the man sent three payments totalling £130 to an account in Williamson's name.

Mr King said another man received messages, from a phone number attributed to Williamson, saying: "I will be on my way to your home address for a chat - let's hope the wife is not home."

'Horrify your victims'

In mitigation, Charles Myatt said when Potter-Williamson opened an account on an adult website, it was a "genuine, albeit desperate, way to make money", the court was told.

"When that had been going on for a time, the idea hit that that information she had gathered could be used - and here we are now," he said.

Christopher Jeyes, representing Williamson, told the court he "recognises what he did was unpleasant and disgraceful in many different ways".

During sentencing, Judge Grey said the pair had been in financial difficulties.

He said Williamson stated he was "gambling heavily and consequently in debt" and Potter-Williamson made references to "using illegal substances".

But while Williamson was the "driver of this offending", Potter-Williamson played a role as a "willing and enthusiastic collaborator", he said.

"You wanted to terrify or horrify your victims," he told the pair.

"Whatever you might think of the morality of those using your online services, Mrs Potter-Williamson, there's no suggestion any of them was doing anything illegal," he added.