Dog groomer and mother of two jailed for blackmailing an innocent man, threatening to label him a ’paedophile’ to extort £100,000

A ‘callous, cruel and entitled’ businesswoman who demanded payments totalling £100,000 from an innocent man has been jailed for blackmail.
Mother-of-two Deborah Hatton, 42, threatened to ‘tell everyone’ the victim was a sex offender after being told he had abused one of her friends as a child, a court heard.
The man, who denied any wrongdoing and is not facing prosecution, was so distraught and terrified by the claims he became ill, lost weight and considered taking his own life, a court heard.
In fear of reprisals, he agreed to pay £250 to Hatton’s unnamed friend but then went to police. Inquiries revealed Hatton, who runs a dog-grooming business, made further repeated demands for weekly payments of £100.
One message she sent read: ‘Your next visit is not going to be from me.’
Hatton, of Hindley Green, near Wigan, was found guilty of blackmail after a trial at Bolton Crown Court.
Jailing her for 16 months, Judge Abigail Hudson said: ‘The way you behaved was frankly horrific. It was callous, cruel, and entitled. You went round to this man’s house and threatened to destroy his life.
‘He quite rightly recognised that if you followed through on those threats he would be at risk of profound violence. And he was terrified – you left him contemplating ending his own life.
Deborah Hatton has been jailed for blackmail after demanding payments totalling £100,000 from an innocent man
The mother-of-two, 42, threatened to ‘tell everyone’ the victim was a sex offender
‘When you saw him, you noted how ill he looked – but could manage no humanity and instead sent him a message again threatening to destroy his life if he didn’t pay.’
The court heard Hatton targeted her victim in 2021 after being told he had abused her unnamed friend several years earlier.
David Toal, prosecuting, said: ‘She confronted the complainant and there were then threats, there was a demand for monies being paid.’
Defence counsel Ian Morris said: ‘She genuinely believed what she was told. She felt the complainant should make good and pay for what happened.’
The blackmail charge Hatton was convicted of stated that, in total, she had ‘made an unwarranted demand of £100,000 with menaces’ from her victim over a four-month period between April 2021 and August 2021 ‘with a view to gain for yourself or another or with intent to cause loss to another’.
The judge added: ‘I bear in mind that you believed the allegation to be true but I am astonished that anyone could have perceived the appropriate action was to reduce something so personal to cash – but you did.
The court heard Hatton (pictured) targeted her victim in 2021 after being told he had abused her unnamed friend several years earlier
Hatton, of Hindley Green, near Wigan, was found guilty of blackmail after a trial at Bolton Crown Court
‘Sadly, I can detect little remorse. You don’t acknowledge the cruelty of your actions and while I accept that you believed the complainant to have done something horrific, to have such an arrogant view of your own superiority is troubling.
‘You are not perfect, Miss Hatton, and sitting in judgment on others without humility shows a real meanness of spirit. It causes me to fear that you will behave this way again.’
Mr Morris said Hatton is the sole carer of her two children aged 14 and 16, and urged the judge not to jail her, adding: ‘There is the suggestion of the loss of her home and the children’s home, as well as the loss of her business.’
Hatton was issued a restraining order banning her from contacting the victim for ten years.
Her friend, who cannot be named, was acquitted of blackmail at an earlier hearing.
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