Rooney blackmail plot pair jailed - The Sun

Lee Platt, 29, and Steven Malcolm, 42, tried to extort 5,000 from the wife of England striker Wayne in exchange for the return of snaps on a stolen Samsung digital camera.

But cops were called and today Platt was jailed for two years after admitting blackmail and receiving stolen goods at an earlier hearing.

Malcolm was jailed for 20 months for the same offences.

The camera's memory card contained more than 400 photos, some showing the couple's young son Kai on family holidays and the inside of their home.

All were touted for sale to newspapers and magazines.

Manchester Crown Court heard Platt got his hands on the memory stick from Coleen's camera, which went missing while she was watching a pop concert at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester in May 2010.

A sting operation was launched after the blackmailers contacted Coleen's agent, Paul Stretford.

An undercover cop contacted the plotters and a meeting was set up in September 2010.

Malcolm a handyman at his co-defendants' furniture business turned up at the Marriott Hotel in Manchester and handed over a folder of the snaps along with the camera memory card expecting the 5,000 payment.

But he was promptly arrested. Police later found the fingerprints of both Green and Platt on pages within the folder.

Sentencing, Judge Anthony Gee QC said Platt was the main offender, adding: "Blackmail is a vile and despicable offence, preying on the vulnerable and causing great distress.

"The courts must do what can be done to deter such offences."

Platt had claimed Rooney was drunk in some of the pictures, the court heard, but this was untrue.

The judge said: "You put that forward in an effort to extort more money from the Rooneys and the club by pretending some of the photographs would be embarassing for them. That was pure fiction."

The camera has not been recovered.

Platt, from Blackley, Greater Manchester, was on bail for another matter of handling stolen goods at the time he committed the blackmail and was jailed for 16 months for the former offence at Bolton Crown Court last April.

Malcolm, from Chorlton, Greater Manchester, had several previous convictions - mainly for disorder and violence - but had also committed burglaries and theft.

Platt's girlfriend Jennifer Green, 26, was sentenced to a 12-month community order and told to perform 40 hours of unpaid work after admitting assisting in the retention of stolen goods.

Deborah Gould, prosecuting, said Coleen made a victim impact statement and said it was "upsetting" to receive a request for money during a period of "unwanted media activity" for her husband.

She said: "It was said that the pictures showed her husband in some state which was untrue and caused her distress."

In late 2010 The Sun revealed how Rooney, 26, had cheated on Coleen, 25, with hooker Jennifer Thompson while she was pregnant with Kai.

It then emerged he had a threesome with Jenny and her vice girl pal Helen Wood.