Facebook blackmailer 'nearly ended our marriage'

A man who blackmailed a couple and shared intimate photos of them without their consent, nearly destroying their marriage, has been jailed.

James Ledsham, 24, sent the images to friends and family members of the victims and demanded they send him more, threatening to post the images he had on Facebook if they did not.

One of the victims, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC it left her "a wreck" as well as "full of shame and disgust".

Ledsham, of Clough Walk in Crewe, Cheshire, was jailed for 30 months at Chester Crown Court after admitting blackmail and two counts of sharing intimate photos without consent at an earlier hearing.

Ledsham first sent the images to a family member of the victims in September 2024 through Facebook, detectives said.

The family member told the victims, who initially tried to ignore the messages, but in November 2024 the same user on the social media site contacted one of the couple directly and demanded they send him more photos.

Ledsham also threatened to share the intimate images he already had with more of their family and friends, as well as post them on Facebook.

After trying to ignore the threats, the couple were contacted afterwards by a friend who said they had also been sent images from the same account.

They reported the incident to police and officers later discovered Ledsham was behind the Facebook account, using a fake name.

The victim said she could not understand how someone would go to such extreme lengths against people he had never met.

"We were constantly avoiding people because we did not know who else had been sent messages from him," she added.

"For a whole year I was a wreck, full of shame and disgust. It almost destroyed our marriage, I was so depressed."

Of Ledsham's sentence, she said she felt like they had received justice, adding: "He thought he would get away with it and he didn't.

"He wanted to break us but, in the end, it has done the opposite. We are happy we got our justice and can finally move on from this all."

PC Toni Woodward, of Cheshire Police, said, after the sentencing on 12 January, Ledsham's actions had a "significant impact" on his victims.

"He hid behind a fake account while subjecting them to an immeasurable amount of distress," she added

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