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Blackmailed lover says Claire Carruthers ‘fooled the whole court’ in sextortion case

Victim of sextortion plot says cruel Claire ‘got off very lightly’

Today at 07:50

The former lover blackmailed by mum Claire Carruthers says she “fooled the whole court” this week during her sextortion case.

The carpet cleaner at the centre of the plot, who Carruthers photographed while naked and asleep and used the images to extort £2,000 (€2,338) from him, believes if a man had done it to a woman, he’d be behind bars.

On Wednesday, 35-year-old Carruthers walked free from Downpatrick Crown Court with an enhanced combination order including a probation order and community service.

Imposing a two-year probation order along with 100 hours of community service, Judge Geoffrey Miller also made a compensation order in the sum of £2,000. He also imposed a two-year restraining order barring Carruthers from contacting the victim or his family

The judge said it was clear that Carruthers was “falling” for her married lover who had “misled her about his own relationship with his wife”.

But the victim described the claims as “complete bulls**t” because he says Carruthers knew exactly the state of his relationship with his wife.

“I was there in court to look her in the eye and see justice done, but she has fooled the whole court, it’s just so frustrating,” said the man, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“Claire knew I was married and had no intentions of leaving my wife.

“She wasn’t falling for me, she’s just a complete head-melter who decided she could make easy money from me.”

The victim revealed how Carruthers initiated sexual flirting when she contacted his carpet cleaning business account, claiming she’d spilled fake tan over her carpet and asked what could she do to fix it until he was able to get there.

“She said she’d send me a photo,” he explained.

“This picture dropped of her sitting on her bedroom floor in sexy underwear in front of the mirror and there was this tiny speck of fake tan on the carpet.”

He says things turned nasty after he told her they had to end their ‘fling’ because he didn’t want to lose his wife.

Last November Carruthers, from Ballygowan, Co. Down, entered a guilty plea to a charge of blackmail in that between June 24 and November 8 2022, she made an unwarranted demand of £4,000 “with menaces” from her victim.

The court was told how the victim was on holiday in Tenerife when he began receiving messages from an Instagram account demanding to know, “do you f*** other people’s wives as part of your service or is that extra?”

He received a picture the de asleep in her car following one of their trysts.

“I didn’t know until she sent me the picture that she’d taken pictures of me in such a state. It was very humiliating.

“I was extremely drunk, had fallen asleep and she took photos without my permission and then used them to blackmail me.

“If a man did that to a woman, I have no doubt he’d have been treated much harsher and would be in jail.”