Mystery superstar’s blackmailer convicted for sexy snaps theft

[HMG Celebrity News] – In a blind-item story that could not be a fake, British police have charged a 24-year old unemployed man with stealing ‘highly sensitive’ photographs from the London home of a pop-star, then blackmailing her for their return.

Police say the unnamed singer left her house keys behind during a trip to the stylist last November. Sebastian Bennett, 24, then used them to enter her home that night while the star was asleep, and stole two Macintosh laptops which held the sensitive pictures.

Described as ‘instantly recognizable’ the singer — who has since issued a court order banning the media from revealing her name or other details — then received several threatening letters and emails from Bennett, demanding cash for the 27 images stored on the stolen computers.

In the letters, Bennett said he thought the photos were worth $3,000 each [around $80,000 in total,] but offered to sell them back to her for the ‘knock-down’ price of $30,000 to prevent them ‘surfacing in the press.’

Only referred to during the case by the pseudonym ‘Nicola Smith,’ the star told the court in a statement that the experience left her feeling ‘very vulnerable and violated.’

“I don’t want to damage your career,” he even claimed in one email.

At this point the star called her lawyers, and they called the cops. A female police officer later met Bennett in a local park, posing as one of the lawyers. He left a USB stick on a wall, the cop checked the stick, found the photos, then she and other officers trailed Bennett to his North London lair.

Once inside, they found a copy of a blackmail letter the star received the previous day, and a scrap of paper with the phone number of ‘Dave64′ – which was the blackmailer’s alias. The car keys were also discovered in a box of washing powder, and Bennett’s own computer contained extra copies of the pictures.

Bennett eagerly claimed all the items belonged to one of several ‘friends’…but he couldn’t remember a single name or address. So they cuffed him.

Reports say Bennett ‘smirked’ as the jury cleared him of the burglary charge. But his expression changed as he was convicted of blackmail and handling stolen goods. He has a long list of convictions for similar crimes and this example carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

Sentencing is now scheduled for Friday. We’ll keep you advised…

Source: Telegraph