Man blackmailed Woman with Sex Video & was sent to Sister

Junaid Shafiq, aged 26, of Washwood Heath, Birmingham, was jailed for two years and three months after he blackmailed a woman with a sex video of her.

Birmingham Crown Court heard he had threatened to publish the intimate video. The victim ended up giving Shafiq £900.

Shafiq promised the woman he had deleted the footage, however, the video was later sent to the victim’s sister.

This resulted in the distraught woman contemplating suicide before going to the police.

Shafiq had recorded a six-second video and taken a picture of the victim performing a sex act on him.

She immediately regretted what had happened and told Shafiq to delete the footage which clearly showed her face. He claimed that he had done.

Amiee Parkes, prosecuting, said that Shafiq later asked the woman to lend him £1,000 to pay off a drugs debt. When she refused, he threatened to send the sex video to her family and friends.

The woman initially gave him £100. After he promised to delete the video and picture, she gave Shafiq a further £800.

Miss Parkes said: “She did not want to send the money but felt she did not have a choice.”

But weeks later, the woman was contacted by her sister who said that someone had sent her the video on an Instagram account.

At an earlier hearing, Shafiq pleaded guilty to blackmail.

In a statement, the woman said she had felt “humiliated, shamed and distressed” by what had happened.

She said:

“I could not believe that Junaid could be so destructive towards me.”

The woman revealed that she had been talked out of committing suicide.

Balbir Singh, defending, said Shafiq had sent the sex video to a mutual friend who later sent the footage to the woman’s sister.

He explained that his client had been upset and depressed and had started smoking cannabis which led to him getting into debt.

Mr Singh said the amount was not a vast sum and that he regretted what he had done.

Judge Melbourne Inman QC told Shafiq:

“The effect of it was obviously apparent from the statement by the victim.

“It demonstrates vividly the effects of the disclosure of such embarrassing personal material.

“It is accepted you did not intend to publish that material although that was your threat.

“Of course the victim did not know that. It was the terror that you would that was the operating factor in the victim’s mind.”

Birmingham Mail reported that Shafiq was jailed for two years and three months.