![GUILTY: Judge Irene Lawson said Ashley Tranter [pictured] would have been placed behind bars had he not plead guilty to blackmail. Picture: ADAM HOLMES](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/Gt8HmW8KEQEvYrMPayTnMA/9ebe65b1-0b88-4aaf-aafa-b2f951869148.jpg/r0_0_5312_2975_w576_h298_fmax.webp "GUILTY: Judge Irene Lawson said Ashley Tranter [pictured] would have been placed behind bars had he not plead guilty to blackmail. Picture: ADAM HOLMES")
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A 27-year-old Maryborough man who blackmailed a 73-year-old he met on a dating website by threatening to tell police he had been raped has avoided a jail time. Last Wednesday Ashley Tranter, 27 – who pleaded guilty to blackmail and two drug possession charges in the Bendigo County Court – was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order by County Court Judge Irene Lawson.
Judge Lawson said Tranter’s threats, which included telling police the victim had sex with underage boys, had a profound impact on the victim.
“He felt unsafe in his own home and mentally battered and bruised,” Judge Lawson said.
“He had difficulty sleeping at night and had to resort to sedatives to assist him to sleep.”
Tranter met his victim on the website gaydar.net in December, 2013. The pair had consensual sex once and Tranter moved into the man's central Victorian house in March, 2014. The victim agreed to loan Tranter $55,000 over the course of several months which, in part, funded Tranter's growing ice habit.
In December, a dispute arose between the pair about whether Tranter would pay the money back and, when no agreement was reached, the man changed the locks on his doors while Tranter was away.
Tranter sent the man a series of text messages demanding more money or he would go to police with rape allegations, as well as allegations the man was keeping child pornography.
After receiving 17 threatening text messages in four days, the victim went to police on December 9, 2014. Tranter was arrested on February 27 when police raided his Laverton house, uncovering a small amount of ice and cannabis.
Judge Lawson acknowledged the offender had a “very tragic background”.
“You had a childhood history where many years were spent in foster care and you have struggled greatly throughout your life with feelings of abandonment and rejection,” she said.
But the judge said blackmail was a crime which must be denounced and that general deterrence was an important consideration.
The maximum penalty for blackmail is 15 years’ imprisonment.
