EXCLUSIVE | 

Mum-of-three blackmailed married lover by threatening to tell wife they were having affair

‘I blackmailed my married lover because I was sick of being f**ked over by men’

Yesterday at 15:20

A mum-of-three has confessed to blackmailing a former ‘lover’ for £2,000 by threatening to tell his wife they were having an affair.

Claire Carruthers pleaded guilty to extorting the cash from a carpet cleaner she says she had been having a relationship with for several months.

But last night the man she was blackmailing told the Sunday World she was “crazy” and that he only had a “brief fling” with Carruthers and not a relationship.

He also revealed, contrary to her claims, she had pursued him and started the ball rolling by sending him photos of herself in sexy lingerie.

Carruthers will be sentenced later this month and a judge at Downpatrick Crown Court has told her she could be going to jail.

The 35-year-old from Ballygowan, Co Down, who works in the fashion industry, claims today how she saw the red mist after she discovered her new lover was already married.

This week, when confronted by the Sunday World, she said she was “completely sorry” and “embarrassed” by her shocking criminal behaviour, – but she was “fed-up of being f**ked over by men”.

And she says she has already paid all the money back.

“I fell for this guy after my marriage of 10 years ended,” she told the Sunday World.

Claire, who used to dress the stars from her exclusive boutique shop ‘Dolled Up’ on Belfast’s Lisburn Road, says she split from her husband in October 2021 and was in a vulnerable place when she started seeing the tradesman two months later.

She claims she struck up a sexual relationship with the man who cleans carpets after he came to her house to carry out work.

“He noticed my husband’s stuff was missing from the house and I told him we had separated.

“When he left my house, he started texting me and telling me how beautiful and sexy I was and how my husband must be an idiot for leaving me.

“I’d been married for 10 years and I was a bit of a mess so it was nice to have someone showing some interest in me. After my husband left, I hadn’t intended on getting into a new relationship but this guy was very persuasive and really wanted me. I was in such a vulnerable place.

“I started texting him back and we were talking non-stop. He pursued me and we ended up having a relationship for a few months.

“I really fell for him. I’m not sure if I loved him but I definitely fell for him hard.

“Then I found out he was married. I bumped into him with his wife when I was dropping my daughter to dance class.

“He had told me he was married but that he was separated from her and they were getting a divorce. He was always moaning that he had no money, so I usually paid for everything on our dates.

“Looking back now, I was always picking him up at his friend’s house and never from his home — and now I know why. He was with her the whole time.

“After what I’d already been through with my husband, it felt like a double heartbreak.

“I was devastated and fed up of being f**ked over by men. I did something out of anger and stupidity. He had chewed me up and spat me out and I was so angry.

“He really hurt me and a man-hating friend of mine planted the seed of blackmailing him by telling him I’d tell his wife about us.

“I blackmailed him and he gave me £2,000. When the police arrested me, I held my hands up straight away.

“I’m so embarrassed about what I did. I didn’t realise the gravity of what I had done and how serious the courts take blackmail. I want to move on with my life.”

But yesterday the victim of her extortion plot hit back, admitting he’d made the mistake of getting involved with her but he was never in a relationship with her.

“There was no relationship but we did have a brief fling, it was just a couple of nights,” he told us last night. “And she started it all when she contacted my business account and told me she’d spilled fake tan over her carpet and asked what could she do to fix it until I was able to get there.

“She said she’d send me a photo. I was sitting with my friends after playing golf and the next thing this picture dropped which everyone saw of her sitting on her bedroom floor in sexy underwear in front of the mirror and there was this tiny spec of fake tan on the carpet!” The man says things turned nasty after he told her they had to end their ‘fling’ because he didn’t want to lose his wife.

“She then set up a fake account with a masked man on it and started sending pictures of me with no clothes on which she’d taken while I was asleep after our first night together.

“I thought it was her ex-husband and I even asked her if it was her but she denied it. When the first demand for £2,000 came through I was on holidays with my wife and kids and I panicked and paid the money.

“Then eight weeks later I got another demand for another £2,000 but this time she sent it from her own phone and I decided to lead her on that I was going to pay and then I got the cops involved and came clean to my wife.

“I admit I was wrong to get involved with her and my marriage is over and it has cost me so much stress and anxiety.

“Her ex-husband called me and we had a good chat about it – he was horrified when he found out she’d told me he was behind the blackmail plot.

Claire told us this week: “I’m just back from a holiday in Jamaica and I’m engaged to a new man and he’s brilliant.

“I’m all settled now after a horrible couple of years so I’m hoping I can put all this behind me and still have a good future. I’m hoping I won’t be sent to prison because I owned up to everything straight away. I didn’t try to deny it at all.”

Claire says she was contacted by her lover’s wife after someone had put a letter through her letterbox telling her that he had been cheating for years.

“She contacted me and I spoke to her, she’s a lovely girl,” she said. “I’m so sorry to his wife. I have no animosity towards her.

“I’m just so sorry for everything. I’m usually just a quiet mum living a simple life, but things went badly wrong.”

Last night the man told the Sunday World he and his wife are in no doubt the ‘anonymous’ letter was posted by Carruthers.

“She posted that letter,” he said. “My wife and her friends were examining it and even said they could match it to her hand-writing – it was all complete nonsense anyway.

“It’s been such a stressful time and I had a bit of a breakdown recently after the one-year anniversary of the blackmailing.

“She put me through complete hell.”

Standing in the dock of Downpatrick Crown Court last month, Carruthers entered a guilty plea to a charge of blackmail in that between June 24 and November 8 last year, she made an unwarranted demand of £4,000 “with menaces” from her male victim.

Following the confession, prosecuting counsel David McClean asked for two similar charges to be “left on the books” which Judge Geoffrey Miller KC granted. The judge told defence counsel Conor Holmes that, given the plea, the case was “concerning” and the barrister described it as a “complicated case”.

While the charge outlines a demand for £4,000, Mr Holmes said Carruthers intends to “make full restitution” to the victim and pay back £2,000 which the victim had lost.

Adjourning passing sentence until January 31, Judge Miller said blackmail offences “are very serious” and warned Carruthers “the custody threshold is clearly crossed”.

He told Carruthers, from the Moss Road in Ballygowan, “the question whether that is immediate or suspended” will depend on the information before him and the contents of the pre-sentence probation report.