Brothers jailed for blackmailing drug addicts

Jamie Kirkham, 37, of Heol y Coleg, Vaynor, in Powys and Ricki Kirkham, 32, of Swallow Drive, Maes y Rhandir, Newtown, had denied the charge and were due to go on trial yesterday.

But following delays after the jury was sworn in, they returned to Mold Crown Court and admitted blackmail. Each was jailed for two years and three months.

Judge Niclas Parry told them their case typified what blackmail was all about: “The strong taking advantage of the weak.”

Both victims were drug dependent and utterly dependent upon prescribed medication and it was the threats they received that made them hand over their medication to the defendants so that they could sell it, he added.

“You made their lives utterly miserable for 10 months,” the judge told the brothers.

Judge Parry said he accepted defence submissions that their vulnerability and anxiety would also have related to their own use of drugs before they came across the defendants. The brothers were also handed a five-year restraining not to contact the victims in any way or approach their home addresses.

Both pleaded guilty to two charges of blackmailing a man and a woman in Newtown between June 2016 and April 2017 by making unwarranted demands for medication.

Ricki Kirkham denied a charge of assaulting the female complainant, which was allowed to remain on the file.

Prosecuting barrister Paulinus Barnes said the victims had medication prescribed to them for anxiety but the brothers had been demanding the drugs with menaces. Ricki Kirkham was alleged to have bullied the female victim and also to have introduced her to heroin.

She told how the brothers at one stage effectively took over their property.

They would go with her on the day the prescription was due to be collected and she was threatened that if she did not hand over the drugs then they would tell police that she was dealing heroin.

Mr Barnes said that she feared if that happened then she might lose contact with her children.

They would repeatedly go to their home, kick the door and bang on windows, demanding to be let in.

The male victim told how they threatened to assault him if they were not given tablets.

When arrested the brothers alleged that the victims were simply selling them the tablets.

The court was told it had left the female victim “an emotional wreck” – she could not sleep and was worried for their safety.

She had found it very traumatic and had considered moving house for her own safety.

The male victim was emotionally drained and told how he had at one stage considered suicide.

Mr Barnes said the male victim felt he should have been there for his partner when she was bullied and intimidated.

They had been deprived of their medication and the man described it as the worst thing he had been through in his life.

Defending barrister Jonathan Austin, for Jamie Kirkham, said his client had an addiction to substances, including prescribed drugs.

He added he had been in a considerable state in the last few months when he no longer had access to them. his client admitted threats and being menacing to get tablets but no more.

Defending barrister Andrew Green, for Ricki Kirkham, said his basis of plea showed it was intimidation rather than actual violence.

He was also been rebuilding his relationship with his partner, the mother of his child, he added, and he had also been helping his father care for his grandmother in the Oswestry area.

His client had used his period in custody in a positive way, was a mentor and had qualifications in mentoring which he hoped to follow up on his release.

He had undergone various other courses including a recovery programme, a health and well-being programme and a “stay out and recover programme” to help him when he was back in the community.