South Yorkshire PC blackmailed indecent images suspect by threatening to reveal his arrest
PC Marie Thompson admitted to demanding £3,500 from the man
Last updated 4th Sep 2025
A police officer has admitted trying to blackmail a man who was arrested for possessing indecent images of children by pretending to be a paedophile hunter and threatening to publicise his arrest.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said PC Marie Thompson, 29, was the officer in charge of a South Yorkshire Police investigation into the man.
She arrested and interviewed him in October 2022, before he was released under investigation, pending further examination of his digital devices.
In January 2023, the man received an email from a ProtonMail address demanding £3,500 be paid into a bank account, with an account number and sort code provided, the CPS said.
The email purported to be from Paedophile Hunters and stated that the payment would "ensure that information remains between you and us".
Later the same day, the man's partner received a text message requesting that a reply was needed by the end of the day.
No money was transferred by the man, who reported the correspondence to South Yorkshire Police via the force's 101 service.
Pc Thompson told the man she would investigate the matter, but falsely endorsed the crime report to say that he did not want to pursue a complaint, the CPS said.
The investigation was closed, and Pc Thompson lied again to the man six weeks later saying that the sender of the email and text message could not be traced.
She was suspended from South Yorkshire Police in March 2023 for other matters and another officer took over the indecent images of children investigation and was informed about the report of blackmail.
It was discovered that the text had been sent from Pc Thompson's personal mobile phone, prosecutors said.
Examination of her laptop also showed email fragments which matched the heading of the email demanding money, but the contents of the message and recipient address could not be recovered.
Pc Thompson, who the CPS said remains suspended from the force, pleaded guilty to blackmail and perverting the course of justice on Thursday at Leeds Crown Court.
She will be sentenced at the same court on October 30.
The prosecution followed an investigation by South Yorkshire Police's professional standards department.
Malcolm McHaffie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said: "Pc Marie Thompson tried to abuse her position as the investigating police officer in this case for financial gain.
"To try and turn an investigation of a suspect into a chance to blackmail them out of money is disgraceful, and then to falsify police reports to cover her tracks is reprehensible.
"The fact that blackmail is a serious crime, no matter who the victim is or what they have done, should have been obvious to anyone, especially a police officer.
"Her conduct amounted to a serious abuse of the trust which we rightly have in anyone in public office to perform their duties."