police officer blackmails suspect posing as paedophile hunter
A serving police officer from South Yorkshire Police has admitted to blackmailing a suspect in a major abuse-case investigation by posing as a “paedophile hunter” and demanding thousands of pounds. The officer, Marie Thompson, aged 29, pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to the offences of blackmail and perverting the course of justice.
The case began in October 2022 when PC Thompson arrested and interviewed a man on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children; that suspect was then released under investigation pending further digital forensic work. In January 2023, the suspect received an anonymous email from a ProtonMail address purportedly from a fictitious vigilante group calling itself “Paedophile Hunters”. The message demanded £3,500 be transferred to a bank account, with the note that payment would “ensure that information remains between you and us”. Later the same day, the suspect’s partner received a text message stating that a reply was required by the end of the day. The suspect refused to pay and instead reported the communications to the police.
Following the complaint, PC Thompson falsely recorded in official documents that the suspect did not wish to pursue a complaint and closed the case saying the sender of the communication could not be traced. Investigators later established that the text message had been sent from Thompson’s personal mobile phone and that fragments of the email were linked to her laptop. The investigation revealed her actions were driven by “considerable gambling debts” and that she abused her position as the investigating officer in order to obtain financial gain.
The Crown Prosecution Service described Thompson’s conduct as “a serious abuse of the trust which we rightly have in anyone in public office to perform their duties”. She is currently suspended pending sentencing, which is scheduled for 30 October 2025.
