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THREE PEOPLE WHO claimed to be from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and threatened bombing to extort money from victims have been jailed at Antrim Crown Court.
The two men and a woman were convicted after victims received phonecalls accusing them of being involved in drugs and told they have to pay money.
The PSNI say calls were made to the Samaritans in November 2013 naming a number of men in Ballymoney and claiming they were under threat from the UVF paramilitary for involvement in drugs.
One of the named victims was contacted directly and told he’d have to pay £6,000 or he and family members would be attacked.
Calls and texts were made from phones linked to one of the convicted men, William Ian Robinson.
After more calls making threats and demanding money, an initial payment of £500 was made on Christmas Eve 2013.
This was followed by a proposed handover of £4,000 in a carpark in January of last year.
The victim was told this would “keep the wolves away.”
Investigating officers say the victim, a Ballymoney businessman, arrived in his car and was met by David Kealey who took the money from him. Police had been made aware of the threats and demands and arrested David Kealey at the scene.
Kealey’s girlfriend, Karina Letters, was arrested in a car a short distance away and a phone used to contact the victim was also found in her vehicle. Robinson was also arrested a short time later in Ballymoney.
Robinson admitted six charges of intimidation and blackmail while Kealey pleaded guilty to blackmail and aiding and abetting intimidation. Letters admitted aiding and abetting blackmail.
“This was a particularly nasty series of offences which caused considerable fear and distress to innocent people over a sustained period of time,” according to the detective inspector Tom McClure who led the investigation.
The victims had nothing to do with drugs and the three defendants had nothing to do with the UVF but the fear created by the calls and the threats was painfully real.
Robinson and Kealey were each sentenced to five years, half in jail and half on licence while letters was given an 18 month sentence, suspended for three years.
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Great article.
Thoughtful and thought provoking.
Great article.. we could all learn from it I suppose.
I see ur point but neither do I need to see a migrants baby washed up on the beach.
@Kath Noonan: I think the difference the author was trying to highlight is that photos of an accident site are for gratuitous ‘likes’ whereas the picture of the child was highlighting a crisis that was costing lives that European society was ignoring. That said, when the latter image was published it was typically pixelated be the media but I actually found the description in the accompanying text more impactful
@Kath Noonan: think you missed the point. Author was asking for consideration in context and using good judgement, but shoehorn in a topic anyway.
@Kath Noonan: This is actually a really good article and highlights a subject that needs to be urgently addressed. Hard to see how anyone can manipulate it to suit their own agenda and yet you managed it. It’s such a shame that you either completely missed the point, are an attention seeker or are just a not very nice person.
As a Norwegian native, I was appalled by this “name and shame” thing, when I came to Ireland 15 years ago. The only times we normally name criminals back there, are when they’re wanted fugitives, and even then, only when they’re a danger to the public.
Of course, the media has deemed a few to be exceptional cases, of importance to the public, including the Breivik case, as well as the NOKAS robberies in 2004. In both cases, the public were hungry for information, until the perps were caught.
To keep the public interested, all the media had to do, was to cease naming them after the cops confirmed the right people had been arrested.
@Finn H. Schoyen: It isn’t a good idea when it’s thoughtless. But I think it goes back to the ancient times when a poet was capable of destroying a person’s reputation. I suppose it served a purpose then, because no one was considered immune from satire. Maybe it was a way to oblige kings to treat other people fairly. Norway is no slouch at satirising public figures either.
Also ppl get off in court when this happens because they didn’t get a fair hearing, guilty by social media
have your say