Blackmailed by the builder after affair ended

A woman was blackmailed by her toy-boy builder after they had a passionate affair when he worked on her Canary Wharf flat, a court heard.

Liam Braithwaite, 25, demanded £2,000 from the 57-year-old woman to stop him revealing their affair to her husband, who was suffering from cancer.

He sent texts and voicemails threatening to ‘destroy your perfect little life’ after his job at the flat and their two-week fling ended.

One message read: ‘I promise, if you don’t help me out I’m going to destroy your family like mine has been destroyed.’

Another read: ‘I don’t care if you go to the police, I’m still coming.’

The father-of-one was hired to carry out building and decorating work at the woman’s home in Canary Wharf, Docklands, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

She gave Braithwaite ‘expensive and lavish gifts’, including a new mobile phone.

He then told the woman ‘he owed money to others, that he had come about some drugs that he had lost and wanted £2,000 from [the victim] in order to repay that debt,’ said prosecutor Satya Chotalia.

Despite initially denying the claims, Braithwaite pleaded guilty to a single charge of blackmail on what would have been the first day of his trial.

‘The defendant had been doing some building and renovation work for the complainant and they began to have an affair,’ said Thea Viney, prosecuting.

‘The victim was married and her husband was unwell at the time.

‘Mr Braithwaite sent a number of threatening text messages to her stating that if she did not pay him £2,000, which he urgently needed, he would reveal the fact that they had been having an affair to her husband and to her son.

Braithwaite was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and given a five-year restraining order preventing him from contacting his victim.

He is also required to complete a 60-day rehabilitation activity and 100 hours unpaid work, as well as pay £1,500 costs and a £100 victim surcharge.

Braithwaite, wearing a denim jacket and white tracksuit bottoms, laughed as he walked free from of the dock and shook hands with his barrister.

Irfan Arif, defending, said: ‘The amount asked for was a relatively small amount in relation to what the earnings of the complainant were.

‘It was over a short period of time and there was no actual violence, it was only threats of violence.

‘Mr Braithwaite is extremely ashamed of himself. He understands he has acted extremely stupidly and foolishly in making these demands. He understands the pain that he’s caused the complainant.’

Passing sentence the judge, Mr Recorder Mark West said: ‘Blackmail is a despicable crime. You, out of sheer greed, threatened to disclose your affair to the family members of your victim.

‘The extent of the distress that must have caused can only be imagined, given the family circumstances of the person concerned, which you knew only too well.

‘It is quite plain to me that only a custodial sentence can be justified.’

Recorder West noted that Braithwaite had ‘no need at the time’ for the £2,000 demanded, adding: ‘It was pure greed.’

Braithwaite, of (12) Enderby Street, Greenwich, south east London, admitted one count of blackmail and was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months.
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