Remember the guy, Jake Della-Vedova, who tried to blackmail a still unnamed Australian politician by threatening to reveal their gay relationship?
Well, the guy’s been sent to jail after pleading guilty to the charge filed against him.
From news.com:
A MAN who tried to blackmail $15,000 from a public figure to keep a sex tape secret has been jailed for four months.
Judge Lisa Hannan said Jake Michael Della-Vedova had used his victim’s sexuality and position in the community to give leverage to his demands for cash.
The County Court heard Della-Vedova, 25, threatened to ruin the career and reputation of the man after secretly taping a sexual encounter they had in July last year.
[snip]
Della-Vedova, of Hawthorn East, pleaded guilty to one count of blackmail.
Judge Hannan said Della-Vedova counted on the fact his victim would be stressed and anxious about release of the tape.
“Your actions were in my view callous and calculated,” she said. “This was not a momentary lapse of judgment.
“The nature of the threats was devastating from the victim’s perspective.”
Judge Hannan said there was some premeditation to Della-Vedova’s crime which was “focused on your own selfish desires for money”.
She accepted Della-Vedova was remorseful and had good prospects of rehabilitation.
Jake Della-Vedova in Australian MP Gay Sex Blackmail
28 February 2009
We guess we will continue to have stories like this blackmail story if powerful gay men continue to hide in the closet. We have no sympathies at all with this Australian politician. He had it coming.
Here’s a report from the Sydney Morning Herald:
A man attempted to blackmail an Australian politician after secretly filming them having sex together.
Jake Della-Vedova, 25, threatened to “out” the married parliamentarian, whom he met on a gay dating website, by placing film of the pair being intimate on the internet.
Della-Vedova, who has lived most of his life in Sydney, has pleaded guilty to a charge of blackmail. He faces a maximum of up to 15 years in jail when he appears for sentencing in the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne on Friday.
The identity of the MP has been suppressed.