Manama: A man who tried to blackmail his neighbour by threatening to post private pictures of her on the internet if she didn’t pay him 5,000 dinars (Dh63,685) is facing charges. When the woman went round to his house to try to take the pictures back he threatened to kill her with a meat cleaver.
The Kuwaiti woman, a government employee in her 40s, was bewildered as to how he obtained the pictures.
“The neighbour called the woman and introduced himself to her as her neighbour,” security sources told local daily Al Rai. “He told her that he had private pictures of her and that he demanded KD5,000 in order not to post them on social networks. The woman did not believe him, so he took a picture of some of them and sent it to her,” the source said.
The woman was stunned and became hysterical.
“She went up to him to recuperate the pictures, but he used a meat cleaver menacingly, warning her that he would kill her. He told her that if she did not hand him the money in two days, he would post the pictures on social networks and that her family and friends would see them,” the source added.
The woman eventually reported the situation to the police.
An investigation was launched and the blackmailer was apprehended for questioning. He confessed that he was in an illicit relationship with the woman’s domestic helper.
“He told the police that the helper visited him every night after sneaking out of her employer’s house and that she gave him the private pictures after stealing them from her bedroom. Following the confession, the police recovered the woman’s pictures from his house,” the source said on Wednesday.
The woman is still trying to come to terms with the betrayal of her domestic helper whom she had trusted, the source added.
Social media users in Kuwait have called for stringent action against the man, saying that he failed to uphold religious and social values and traditions. However, others said that he needed special treatment, arguing that a man in full possession of his mental capacities would not do such a thing.
