LinkedIn lawyer denies blackmailing convicted paedophile

A BUSINESSMAN has boasted to a court of having more than 30,000 LinkedIn followers after denying charges he blackmailed a convicted paedophile.

A BUSINESSMAN has boasted of having more than 30,000 LinkedIn followers as he yesterday denied that he blackmailed a convicted paedophile.

In Parramatta Local Court, IT guru Leon Heydenrych’s hopes of chasing new business opportunities in Sydney were dashed when he was told he would be extradited to South Australia on charges of blackmail. The 50-year-old was charged with threatening convicted­ paedophile former Adelaide teacher Kym Peckham, that he would release details of his criminal past if he wasn’t paid money in 2014.

Heydenrych claims to have 30,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Heydenrych was returning from his native South Africa, where has lived since 2016, when Federal Police detained him with a warrant for his arrest­ on Saturday.

His Legal Aid solicitor Ronnie­ Naidoo told Magistrate John McIntosh there was a “whole lot” of information missing from the prosecution, before Heydenrych, via video link, told the court: “I don’t believe I have a voice in this forum.”

His solicitor asked: “Would you like to represent yourself?”

Heydenrych accepted, adding: “I am on LinkedIn I have 30,000 people following me.”

His profile also states he has a bachelor of law from the University of South Africa.

He told the court he had been asked to be the second in charge of Peckham’s educational software provider Obvious­ Choice in the United Arab Emirates in 2014 but did some digging and found out Peckham had been convicted on paedophilia charges in 2006. But he denied receiving money by threatening him, saying: “This money was voluntarily paid into my account. It is absolutely bizarre.”

He said Peckham’s criminal past was information that was publicly available and pleaded with the magistrate to give him bail. “I will lose the contract and the opportunity to work in this county.”

Bail was refused.