Deborah Hatton has been jailed for 16 months for blackmail (Picture: Deborah Hatton/ Cavendish Press)
A ‘cruel’ mother-of-two who threatened to brand a man as a paedophile unless he handed her £100,000 has been jailed.
Dog groomer Deborah Hatton, 42, drove her victim to contemplate suicide in 2021 after being told he had abused her friend as a child – a claim he denies.
Feeling angry, hurt and confused, Hatton ‘felt the complainant should make good and pay for what happened’, her lawyer Ian Morris told the court.
‘You believed the allegation to be true’, Judge Abigail Hudson told Hatton, of Hindley Green, Wigan, in her sentencing remarks.
‘But I am astonished that anyone in your position could have perceived that the appropriate action in these circumstances was to reduce something so personal to cash – but you did.’
She added: ‘There may well have been a desire to go to the police – but that was coupled with threats to make him a walking target.’
After hearing of the alleged abuse, Hatton started to make threats.
If her victim didn’t pay £100 into her friend’s account each week, she would tell everyone she knew he is a paedophile, she warned.
One message said: ‘Your next visit is not going to be from me.’
Ms Hatton is the sole carer for her two teenage children (Picture: Deborah Hatton/ Cavendish Press)
Hatton’s victim lost so much weight in a matter of week, he started to look ill, a fact Hatton herself had noticed.
The judge said: ‘When you saw him, you noted how ill he looked and commented upon how much weight he had lost – but could manage no humanity and instead sent him a message again threatening to destroy his life if he didn’t pay.’
Fearing for his safety, the victim agreed to pay £250 to Hatton’s friend and then went to the police and Hatton was subsequently charged.
Judge Hudson said: ‘He quite rightly recognised that if you followed through on those threats he would be at risk of profound violence every time he left his home.
‘And he was terrified. The distress and damage that you caused was profound.’
The judge accused Ms Hatton of showing little remorse (Picture: Deborah Hatton/ Cavendish Press)
The blackmail charge stated that Hatton ‘made an unwarranted demand of £100,000 with menaces’ between April and August 2021.
Hatton was found guilty of blackmail and jailed for 16 months after a trial at Bolton Crown Court. Her victim will not be prosecuted for the sex allegations.
Sentencing, Judge Hudson said: ‘The way you behaved was frankly horrific. It was callous, cruel, and entitled. You went round to this man’s house and you threatened to destroy his life.’
The judge added: ‘Sadly, I can detect little remorse. I have seen a number of references which speak highly of you while implying that “the other party” was the problem.
‘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.’
The judge described the blackmail as ‘wholly unacceptable and inexcusable’ (Picture: Deborah Hatton/ Cavendish Press)
In mitigation, Hatton’s lawyer Mr Morris said his client, who is the sole carer of her two teenage children and works alone as a dog groomer, may lose her home.
He said: ‘Her fear is that if she goes to custody it will have an impact on all those things.
‘There is the suggestion of the loss of her home and the children’s home more importantly, the only one they have ever known, as well as the loss of her business.
‘There is a low likelihood of reoffending – she has not put a foot wrong as far as the law is concerned in these intervening years.’
He added: ‘This was not a persistent course of regular threats and visits. There was no damage to property, no physical assaults, more of a view of what could happen hypothetically, that never did.’
But the judge said: ‘You are not perfect Miss Hatton and your sitting in judgment on others without any humility shows a real meanness of spirit. More than that – it causes me to fear that you will behave this way again.
‘The reality is that those who blackmail others, particularly in such a horrendous way as this must receive custodial sentences to ensure that the public understand that such threats are wholly unacceptable and inexcusable.’
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