Nude selfie extortion attempt lands woman in court

A court has handed a suspended sentence to a 22-year-old woman from Cospicua who admitted to extorting nearly €2,000 from a man, whose nude selfies she had tricked him into sending her.

Inspector Josric Mifsud arraigned Rosianne Cassar before Magistrate Neville Camilleri this morning, and explained how the accused had communicated with her victim, who was married to another woman, through Facebook.

In June of last year, Cassar had sent the man explicit pictures of a pornographic actress, claiming them to be her likeness and he had replied with genuine photographs of himself in the nude.

But Cassar, who is unemployed, started demanding money from him, threatening report him to his wife and publish his nude photographs to the internet if he did not comply.

In the four months that followed, she extorted the sum of €1,770 from her victim. A report was filed with the police after Cassar initiated contact with the victim's wife on Wednesday, in an attempt to extort more money from him.

She was charged with extortion, making threats, misuse of communications equipment and committing a crime by use of a computer.

Defence lawyer Edward Gatt described the actions of his client as “a mere folly” and argued that the crime was prompted by Cassar’s dire economic need - a result of her being an unemployed single mother. He informed the court that the accused wished to plead guilty.

In submissions on punishment, Inspector Mifsud told the magistrate that his primary concern was the destruction of the material gathered by the accused and that she be made to leave the victim alone. The inspector was permitted by the court to retain Cassar’s mobile phone and laptop until the removal of the offending data could be performed by technical experts.

Magistrate Camilleri handed the woman a two-year prison sentence suspended for four and ordered her to repay the €1,770 within six months.

The court upheld a request for a ban on the publication of the name of the victim, but not that of the accused.