Former Central Coast police officer sentenced over revenge porn texts
A judge has sentenced Daniel Blandford for sending intimate pictures of his ex-girlfriend, also a police officer, to her new boyfriend and another colleague.
Central Coast
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A female police officer sent her boyfriend and colleague an intimate picture of her vagina to “comfort” him while he was in residential rehabilitation for alcohol abuse.
But when former Tuggerah Lakes Senior Constable Daniel Blandford got out of rehab — and they broke up — he sent the image to her new partner and a flatmate out of “revenge”, a court has heard.
The 38-year-old former “front line” officer, who was medically discharged in November, pleaded guilty to two counts intentionally distributing an intimate image without consent at Gosford Local Court last week.
An agreed set of police facts revealed Blandford and another Tuggerah Lakes Senior Constable were in a relationship between 2015 and 2017.
During their relationship he spent some time in rehab for alcohol abuse where she sent him explicit images of herself, which the court heard was “some form of comfort” to him.
But when the relationship ended in a verbal slanging match in June 2017, she called it off and took out an apprehended violence order against him.
She then began a new relationship with another man but the court heard Blandford, of Woongarrah, could not accept she had moved on.
He was drinking heavily with his dad on May 24, 2018, when he went looking on Facebook for her new partner’s profile.
He drafted a message to the man and showed his dad her intimate photo and said “how funny would it be if I sent that”.
The court heard his dad told him “don’t you bother” to which Blandford replied “no, I’m not that stupid”.
However his dad would later tell police, when Blandford put the phone down and went to the toilet, the father picked up the phone and tried to delete the image but in his drunken state accidentally sent it instead.
The woman’s new partner received the message and he showed it to her a couple of days later, which she instantly recognised.
She notified police who downloaded Blandford’s phone, which revealed he had sent the same image to his flatmate, who was also a fellow officer, in March of that year.
Blandford was convicted of two counts of intentionally distributing an intimate image without consent and was put on a community corrections order for two years.
He was also ordered to perform 150 hours of community service.
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Magistrate Peter Barnett said while he accepted Blandford was suffering post traumatic stress disorder and had an alcohol abuse disorder he was “satisfied the little green god of jealousy” or envy was behind the messages.
“There is an element of revenge and if it’s not revenge, there’s a touch of sour grapes,” Mr Barnett said.
He said it was aggravated by the fact it was done by an officer sworn to uphold the law.
Mr Barnett also ordered Blandford to delete the image.