Teh One Who Knocks
09-02-2016, 11:24 AM
By BRITTANY VONOW - The Sun
http://i.imgur.com/dhVS9SB.jpg
A MAN who threatened to have poisoned supermarket foods with cyanide, demanding £2 million, has been jailed for seven years after his blackmail plot was foiled.
David Ward, 51, wrote a threatening note to a British supermarket, warning he had laced food on the shelves with pure cyanide.
The chemistry graduate said he had targeted “slow-selling” items which would be sold within five days and lead to the “certain death” of anyone who ate the products.
The blackmailer even posted a vial of cyanide to the supermarket to show he was serious, writing: “The dose employed will result in the certain death of a whole family within 30 minutes of consumption. We want two million pounds.
“We are all employees of the company and free to poison your *products at any time of our choosing. We have the power to destroy your company and we will unless paid.
“Don’t pay and people will die, I promise you, and we will want four million then for the extra unwanted attention this would bring.”
He ordered the supermarket to place an obituary in a national newspaper under a specific name to signal that they were willing to pay the blackmail amount.
Signing of the letter as “a businessman”, he wrote: “Make the announcement and *innocent people need not die.”
But the plot was failed when police traced the DNA left on the envelope to Ward.
Authorities managed to use the DNA attached to the stamp to Ward, who had been convicted of an unconnected offence in 2012.
He was arrested a day before his blackmail deadline.
But Ward denied he had actually poisoned any food, saying it had just been a threat.
He also admitted to having worked alone, despite writing the note as if from a group of people.
http://i.imgur.com/4kcAyVR.jpg
Judge Mark Dennis QC praised police for working quickly to prevent the threat from becoming a reality.
He said: “Within four days, you were identified as the perpetrator of this blackmail scheme and you were traced and arrested at your home address.
“Had it not been for a DNA profile obtained from you in relation to an earlier offence, you may well have remained undetected and your scheme allowed to run at your direction.”
He said the man had used his training and expertise in chemistry to carry out the threat, as well as purchasing a large amount of potassium cyanide.
The man’s lawyer Matthew Sherratt said his client accepted a heavy prison sentence, The Mirror reported.
The supermarket involved in the threats cannot be identified as court rules protect blackmail victims.
http://i.imgur.com/dhVS9SB.jpg
A MAN who threatened to have poisoned supermarket foods with cyanide, demanding £2 million, has been jailed for seven years after his blackmail plot was foiled.
David Ward, 51, wrote a threatening note to a British supermarket, warning he had laced food on the shelves with pure cyanide.
The chemistry graduate said he had targeted “slow-selling” items which would be sold within five days and lead to the “certain death” of anyone who ate the products.
The blackmailer even posted a vial of cyanide to the supermarket to show he was serious, writing: “The dose employed will result in the certain death of a whole family within 30 minutes of consumption. We want two million pounds.
“We are all employees of the company and free to poison your *products at any time of our choosing. We have the power to destroy your company and we will unless paid.
“Don’t pay and people will die, I promise you, and we will want four million then for the extra unwanted attention this would bring.”
He ordered the supermarket to place an obituary in a national newspaper under a specific name to signal that they were willing to pay the blackmail amount.
Signing of the letter as “a businessman”, he wrote: “Make the announcement and *innocent people need not die.”
But the plot was failed when police traced the DNA left on the envelope to Ward.
Authorities managed to use the DNA attached to the stamp to Ward, who had been convicted of an unconnected offence in 2012.
He was arrested a day before his blackmail deadline.
But Ward denied he had actually poisoned any food, saying it had just been a threat.
He also admitted to having worked alone, despite writing the note as if from a group of people.
http://i.imgur.com/4kcAyVR.jpg
Judge Mark Dennis QC praised police for working quickly to prevent the threat from becoming a reality.
He said: “Within four days, you were identified as the perpetrator of this blackmail scheme and you were traced and arrested at your home address.
“Had it not been for a DNA profile obtained from you in relation to an earlier offence, you may well have remained undetected and your scheme allowed to run at your direction.”
He said the man had used his training and expertise in chemistry to carry out the threat, as well as purchasing a large amount of potassium cyanide.
The man’s lawyer Matthew Sherratt said his client accepted a heavy prison sentence, The Mirror reported.
The supermarket involved in the threats cannot be identified as court rules protect blackmail victims.