Ex-PC jailed over blackmail plot to cover debts

Marie Thompson anonymously demanded £3,500 from a man arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children

A former police officer has been jailed after she pretended to be a paedophile hunter and tried to blackmail a suspect in a bid to cover her gambling debts.

PC Marie Thompson, 29, had used a fake email address to demand £3,500 from the man arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, and then falsely told him she had been unable to find the perpetrator when he reported it to her.

Thompson, who worked for South Yorkshire Police, pleaded guilty to blackmail and perverting the course of justice at Leeds Crown Court.

She was sentenced to 40 months in prison on Thursday.

The court heard Thompson was the officer in charge of a South Yorkshire Police investigation into the man, whom she arrested in October 2022.

He was interviewed and released under investigation but then received an email demanding the money be paid into a bank account which was signed "Paedophile Hunters".

It said the payment would "ensure that information remains between you and us" and that information about his arrest had been given to them.

"As an organisation which works to protect children from people such as yourself we therefore ask you to make a donation to us," it added.

Marie Thompson was jailed for 40 months at Leeds Crown Court

Later the same day, the man's partner received a text message saying a reply was needed by the end of the day.

However, they did not pay and instead reported it to Thompson, who worked in Doncaster.

She said she would investigate the matter, but falsely endorsed the crime report to say he did not want to pursue a complaint.

The court heard she told "a number of lies" in her pocket notebook entries, including changing the mobile number used to text the man's partner to conceal the fact that it was her own personal phone number.

The man later received a second email with the subject "I'm so sorry".

"I came to drop something off for my mum and overheard you talking. I never told a soul and never intended to," it read.

The court heard this was "a further attempt by Thompson to cover her tracks".

'Extremely angry'

The court heard Thompson left that team in March 2023 and her caseload was transferred.

The officer who took over the case visited the man and he mentioned the blackmail attempt and said Thompson had not been able to discover the culprit.

When the officer checked the number from the text message sent to the man's partner he found it was the number Thompson had used on her police vetting form.

A victim impact statement from the man, who was later given a suspended prison sentence for the indecent image charges, said: "I feel extremely angry towards Marie Thompson, she was trusted in her role as a police officer in a department that comes into contact with probably the most vulnerable persons in society.

"For her to know the position I was in and use it against me is unbelievable."

The court heard Thompson suffers from a severe gambling disorder and was in considerable debt at the time of the offence.

South Yorkshire Police said after her guilty plea a Regulation 13 notice - issued to probationers deemed unfit to serve as a police officer - was served to her at the direction of Chief Constable Lauren Poultney.

Thompson subsequently resigned from the force on 16 October.

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North