Northern Ireland

Woman 'randomly' targeted in alleged revenge porn case

The accused is accused of telling the woman's Facebook friendsthe images were on revenge porn websites
The accused is accused of telling the woman's Facebook friendsthe images were on revenge porn websites The accused is accused of telling the woman's Facebook friendsthe images were on revenge porn websites

A 46-YEAR-OLD father-of-two has appeared in court accused of tricking a woman into sending explicit pictures later used as `revenge porn' by claiming to own a model agency.

Neil James Edwards was arrested in England and brought to Northern Ireland by PSNI Cyber Crime officers.

Dungannon Magistrates Court heard on Friday that the case does not appear to have been motivated by financial gain but was "to satisfy sexual needs and to exert control over females, picked randomly".

Mr Edwards of Millenium Close, Northampton is accused of blackmailing a young woman from Co Fermanagh..

The woman in her twenties received a telephone call in September 2014, from someone purporting to be carrying out a beauty survey on behalf of a magazine.

She was later introduced via Facebook to a person claiming to be female and representing a model agency.

The court heard that over the next eight weeks she supplied 59 images on request, which ranged from "fully nude, semi-nude, and three were classed as explicit".

She believed these photographs were required to create a 3D body scan for her portfolio.

The young woman was later told the model agency never existed and it had been orchestrated by a teenage male from her home town.

The train driver is accused of later notifying the woman's Facebook friends that the images had been posted elsewhere online, some on so-called revenge porn websites.

The court heard she was blackmailed with demands for further photographs or existing ones would be posted online for thousands to see.

Officers traced the messages to Mr Edwards and arrested him at his place of work on December 16.

Three mobile phones were seized, one of which contained the woman's details and texts.

It is alleged five other women were identified during this search, all of whom revealed similar incidents.

There were 69 encrypted images and the Mr Edwards "has refused to supply the encryption key to police".

The court heard the defendant "strenuously denies any blackmail" and claims he found the phone "on a train" but refused to elaborate.

Judge Meehan said it was "an extremely serious, sinister kind of offence of the violations and exploitations which rise from modern technology".

"Cases such as these reflect the preying upon and stalking of innocent women. In this cyber age boundaries fall away and can become international."

Bail was refused and Mr Edwards, a married father of two adult sons, was remanded in custody to appear by video-link at Fermanagh Magistrates Court on January 13.