A teenage waitress tried to blackmail a policeman she was dating after doctoring a video to make it sound like he had threatened to rape her.
Georgia Harris secretly filmed the officer as they sat in his car and had a conversation she instigated about a ‘hypothetical’ sex attack.
She edited the recording and sent him a short clip in which he could be heard saying, ‘I’d be raping you’ and she replied, ‘I don’t want you to rape me’.
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Harris, who was 19, threatened to report him to colleagues unless he paid R 4 140.89 into her account. She was arrested after the 22 year old officer, who was not named in court, went to bosses at Kent Police. Harris, now 20, was sentenced to eight months in a young offenders’ institution this week after admitting blackmail.
A post on the facebook account of Georgia Stella Harris. PICTURE: Facebook
She had sent a letter to her victim, who she met through a dating website, in which she apologised and said: ‘I was not in my right mind. After all, who blackmails a police officer?’ But Judge Jeremy Carey said he had to lock her up to reflect the seriousness of the offence and deter others.
Harris, of Chelmsford, Essex, was being driven home by the officer last May when she asked him about rape.
Peter Forbes, prosecuting, said: ‘She said, “What would you do if I told you I was just 15?” He asked why she would say that, and said her website profile indicated she was at least 18.
‘She said she was 17 and asked him, “If you were to force me to have sex with you, what would that be?” He replied, “I’d be raping you” and went on to explain why that would be the case.’
Georgia Stella Harris in happier times. PICTURE: Facebook
The officer was ‘confused’ by the conversation and the couple later argued in an exchange of texts. He told Harris not to contact him again. She responded by sending him the cropped version of their conversation with a text that said: ‘You said you were going to rape me and said you didn’t care I was young.’
Alarmed by the turn of events, he asked Harris to call him and she demanded R 3 313.35 or she would go to the police with the video. Texts that followed increased the demand to R 4 141.69, although no money was handed over before she was arrested.
Maidstone Crown Court heard on Wednesday that the couple met online in December 2015 and went out a few times. Harris began to pester him about staying at his home but he refused. When he ignored her texts she warned: ‘I know where you live.’
The officer did not understand her behaviour but they continued to meet for dinner and a shopping trip. He said in a statement he felt he was ‘trapped in a corner’ and being used for money. ‘She has always been talking about money and asking for money,’ he explained.
He also described feeling ‘vulnerable’ following the blackmail attempt and now suffered ‘trust issues’. A probation officer told the court Harris was motivated by financial greed and immaturity. Edward Duncan Smith, defending, said his client, who hopes to become an air hostess, had stopped drinking and sought psychiatric help.