Footballer jailed for blackmail

Published on Friday 5 September 2008 23:00

A GOALKEEPER who blackmailed a top Premier League footballer over a sex video was jailed for 20 months yesterday.

Former Manchester City trainee Ashley Timms, 22, demanded 15,000 from the star, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Timms, of Middleton, Greater Manchester, made a series of threats to publish the images if he was not paid the cash. The video clip showed a woman and the footballer engaged in sex at his home.

Timms pleaded guilty last month and was jailed yesterday at Manchester Crown Court after admitting making demands with menaces.

Judge Andrew Gilbart said: "Blackmail always calls for a custodial sentence. The abuse of your friendship for simple greed is an aggravating feature. This was a calculated attempt to extract money."

Timms and the player, known only as witness A, had become friends over a period and were part of a "fantasy world" of fast cars, money and women.

Such videoing of footballers involved in sex with young women had become "commonplace", the court heard.

David Friesner, prosecuting, told the court Timms used a mobile phone to video the international footballer having sex with a 19-year-old woman at the player's home last September.

But they drifted apart as Timms' football career "withered" because of his poor attitude. He became excluded from the high-life of a top footballer, but "out of the blue" contacted the Premiership player in March. Timms wanted 15,000 to put a deposit on a house and told A he could "buy" the sex footage and then destroy it.