A Melbourne recruiter threatened to leak lewd images of his ex-girlfriend unless she returned a Louis Vuitton handbag, earrings and gave him cash after their break-up.
Recruitment consultant Martin Dai Nguyen was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order in Victoria’s County Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of blackmail.
The 30-year-old met his ex-girlfriend through Facebook in October 2020 before she moved into his inner-city apartment a month later.
During their relationship, Nguyen recorded videos and photos of the pair performing sex acts but he became controlling and abusive, the court was told.
His victim initially believed Nguyen had deleted the videos and images he took, but he backed the recordinxjmtzywgs on another account.
The pair broke up in April 2021 after his victim wanted to go out with her friends and Nguyen wouldn’t let her.
The day after the break-up Nguyen sent her a barrage of threatening messages demanding she return the keys to his apartment, a pair of earrings, a Louis Vuitton handbag he gave her and ordered her to pay $1250.
If she did not comply he would release the recordings.
“Let me know how soon you can organise this before I ruin your career here in Aus with some cute videos,” he told her through a text.
He also sent the victim a screenshot of a Facebook message he threatened to send to her mother with one of the videos.
“If I don’t hear back from you (your) mum gets the video first. That will give you a serious warning that I’m not f–king around,” Nguyen told his ex-girlfriend via text.
He sent the texts and messages in a bid to get his former partner to “respond to you in the way you desired”, Judge Angela Ellis said when handing down her sentence.
It must have been “incredibly frightening and upsetting” for his victim to have a former partner threaten to publicly expose video material of them engaged in sexual activity, Judge Ellis said.
The judge said Nguyen’s feelings of jealousy and insecurity needed to be addressed.
As part of the community order Nguyen, who has no relevant priors, must undergo treatment for his drug and alcohol abuse, complete 200 hours of community work and continue to engage with a behavioural change program.
