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Abuse trial told of £20,000 blackmail plot
A man who claimed he was abused by his teacher has told a court how he blackmailed him into handing over £20,000.
In a series of letters the man, who is now in his 20s, threatened to go to the police unless James Braid stumped up cash.
The plot was uncovered when police searched Braid's home after another former pupil made an allegation of abuse and found the letters.
The blackmailer, who was jailed for two years but cannot be named for legal reasons, told Portsmouth Crown Court he was desperate for money.
He said: 'It was Christmas at the time and I was drinking quite a lot as well and I just came up with this idea to blackmail him.'
In the first letter, sent in December 2007, the man demanded 5,000 from Braid, a former teacher at Bay House School in Gosport, which he paid up.
He wrote again in February 2008 requesting another 3,000 and regular monthly payments of 1,200 before finally demanding another 3,000 in June 2008.
In the letters, the man who claims he was abused as a schoolboy in the 1990s, told Braid: 'It's your turn to suffer' and 'I'm going to turn the tables'.
He wrote: 'You abused me for years, now you make a choice, your money or your life.'
In another he said: 'You can cover up your sick past with your great life, my past stays with me everyday in my squalid little life.'
The court has previously been told how Braid was acquitted of separate allegations of abuse after a trial in 1998.
Sarah Jones, defending, said the man who blackmailed Braid had seen the stress the teacher went through during that trial and, knowing he was vulnerable, made up lies about being abused himself to get money out of him.
She asked him: 'You had to pretend in those letters that all of this was true and you were a victim or Mr Braid wouldn't have to pay would he?'
He replied: 'If he wasn't guilty he wouldn't have paid the money anyway.'
Braid, an English and drama teacher for 30 years before he retired last year, is accused of abusing four boys over a 20-year period.
The 58-year-old denies seven counts of indecent assault, one of rape and another sexual offence.
(Proceeding)
'I WAS TOO SCARED TO SAY ANYTHING'
The man giving evidence yesterday was the third of the four alleged victims to have appeared in court so far.
He said that when he was at school Braid had told him he loved him and that no-one should find out about the abuse.
Asked by Katherine Lumsdon, for the prosecution, why he did not speak out at the time he said: 'I was probably too scared to say anything to anyone. I didn't think anyone would believe me either to be honest. He added: 'He always said he loved me and that wouldn't stop.'
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Friday 10 February 2012
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