A former police officer, PC Marie Thompson, has been sentenced to 40 months in prison after being found guilty of blackmail and perverting the course of justice. The charges stemmed from an elaborate scheme where Thompson, driven by a severe gambling addiction and considerable debts, blackmailed a man she had arrested in an indecent images case. The Leeds Crown Court heard the details of Thompson's calculated actions, which unfolded after she had taken charge of a South Yorkshire Police investigation into the suspect, whom she arrested in October 2022 on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children.

Following his interview and release under investigation, the man received an email from an anonymized address, posing as 'Paedophile Hunters.' This email demanded a payment of £3,500 into a specified bank account, threatening to publicize the allegations if the 'donation' was not made. The email read: "Information has been passed to us that you have been arrested for media involving children. As an organisation which works to protect children from people such as yourself we therefore ask you to make a donation to us." Later that same day, the man's partner received a text message reinforcing the demand for a reply.

Instead of complying, the couple reported the blackmail attempt to the police. PC Thompson, then working in Doncaster, pretended to investigate the matter. However, she falsely endorsed the crime report to state that the man did not wish to pursue a criminal complaint. Furthermore, she falsified entries in her pocket notebook, changing the mobile number used to text the man's partner to conceal the fact that it was her own personal phone. In a further attempt to cover her tracks, Thompson sent the man a second email with the subject line "I'm so sorry," claiming to have overheard him talking and never intending to disclose anything.

Thompson continued her deception by falsely informing the man six weeks later that the sender of the blackmail email and text message could not be traced, effectively closing the investigation. Her elaborate cover-up began to unravel when she left her team in March 2023, and her caseload was transferred to another officer. This new officer, upon reviewing the man's case and learning about the uninvestigated blackmail plot, checked the phone number used in the threatening text message. It was discovered that this number precisely matched the one Thompson had provided on her police vetting form, directly linking her to the crime.

During pre-sentencing mitigation, it was revealed that Thompson's actions were motivated by her overwhelming need for money to service her "considerable debts" due to a "severe gambling disorder." The victim, who later received a suspended prison sentence for the indecent image charges, expressed his profound anger, stating: "For her to know the position I was in and use it against me is unbelievable." Thompson had pleaded guilty to blackmail and perverting the course of justice in September before receiving her sentence.