A Belfast man who created a false online account and who blackmailed 16 separate woman he met on Tinder into sending him sexual images and videos has been jailed for 20 months.
As he sentenced Christopher Morrow at Belfast Crown Court, Judge Gordon Kerr KC said the 27-year old “degraded” and “mocked” the women and threatened that he would sent sexual images to their family, friends and employers.
Morrow admitted 16 charges of blackmail which he committed over a period from January 14 to April 3, 2023.
The father-of-one, from Belvoir Drive, also admitted possessing an extreme pornographic image on April 10, 2023.
The court heard in February and March 2023 the PSNI received a number of reports from females regarding online contact with a male called ‘Joseph’ that they met on Tinder.
The woman reported that after the initial meetings on Tinder, the conversations then moved to Snapchat and became more sexual, with intimate images and videos being exchanged consensually.
‘Joseph’ was a false identity created by Morrow, who after obtaining sexual images then threatened that he would share these if the women didn’t sent him more explicit images or videos.
On some occasions, Morrow sent screenshots of the woman’s family members Facebook accounts and threatened to send the images to them, whilst on other occasions he said he would send them to work colleagues.
Morrow also told one of his victims that he was going to contact her grandmother and tell her that her grand-daughter had been selling naked pictures of herself online unless she sent further images or videos.
He was arrested on April 10, 2023 and his phone was seized. This provided evidence that Morrow had set up the false ‘Joseph’ profile and information from the Instagram account of a male in England.
During a police interview in August 2023, he denied having any contact with any of the 16 victims and said he had not used Tinder for seven years. Despite his initial denials, Morrow subsequently admitted all 17 counts levelled against him. Judge Kerr said that Morrow’s offending had left his victims feeling “distraught”, “anxious”, “violated” and “terrified” that their images would be shared.
The Judge set out several aggravating factors including the distress Morrow caused to multiple victims and the pre-meditation involved for his own sexual gratification.
The Judge said in his view Morrow had “no regard” for the affect his actions had on his victims and that he “humiliated them and caused them significant emotional harm.”