Bankstown taxi driver sentenced for blackmail after duping woman into becoming second wife
A western Sydney man created multiple fake social media accounts which he used to share lewd photos of his second wife who he met via a Muslim dating site.
The Express
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A pervert used Muslim dating site Muzmatch to mislead a woman into becoming his second wife before blackmailing her once she found out and demanded a divorce.
The Indonesian-Australian man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, pleaded guilty in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday to recording intimate images without consent, threatening to distribute them, four counts of distributing them and blackmail.
Court documents state in 2022 the Bankstown taxi driver joined the popular Muslim matchmaking site where he met the woman living in Indonesia.
He told the victim he was divorced and the pair were married in an Islamic ceremony overseas in late 2022.
In late 2023, the man revealed he was still with his first wife and daughter in Australia and as a result the woman wanted a divorce.
Documents state while the second wife visited Australia she met the first who did not have an issue with the situation. However, during this trip the victim reiterated she wanted to separate.
In December 2023, the victim returned to Indonesia with the man who stayed with her for two months.
Documents state in this period he took photos of the woman while she was sleeping with his hand hovering above her underwear-covered vagina.
The victim asked a third time for a divorce in April. According to court documents, this was when she considered herself divorced according to the processes of her faith.
“I will create Facebook, Instagram, TikTok in [your name] and I want to upload your naked photos,” the man threatened.
The victim replied: “Don’t you be crazy. You are really a nasty person.”
Early on May 1 he texted her several accounts he created in her name and said: “This is the Facebook I have created. Good luck.”
Documents state the man found and used images of the woman from her high school then followed her friends, relatives, colleagues and her daughter’s social media accounts, before publishing more than 50 images of the woman to multiple accounts.
The man also published the victim’s address, personal and business details as well as relatives’ contacts.
Using his adult daughter’s Instagram account, the man messaged the woman’s adult daughter demanding she pay the equivalent of $3000.
“If she wants to delete the social media, please pay compensation of 30 million (Indonesian Rupiah),” he messaged.
“Or else people will know your mother had an abortion… As for your mums (sic) naked photos, I will send it to bad people in [your hometown]. I will give you one week.”
Documents state after retrieving her phone, the man’s daughter messaged: “I’m really sorry for the message above. I’m (sic) spoke to him about the screenshots you sent me and he said he wanted to read the messages. I didn’t think he would respond like this.”
“Both mum and I are angry at him for the message, but we doubt that he would do anything. I’ll make sure he doesn’t. Just keep a look out and let me know if anything pops up. I’ll speak to him again when he’s cooled off.”
The man made a fake WhatsApp account and sent 53 images to one of the woman’s male friends.
In July, the woman and her daughter flew to Australia to report the matter with the man arrested at Bankstown Police Station.
According to police documents, the man “showed no remorse” and “blatantly lied to investigators” before confessing.
In court, defence solicitor Claudia McCristal said her client, who suffers from health issues including cancer, had no previous criminal history and was generally well thought of in the community.
Magistrate Glenn Walsh said the man’s actions had been “premeditated” and designed to inflict “maximum emotional harm and humiliation”.
“What he did was wrong,” Magistrate Walsh said.
“This was demonstrative of a man trying to exercise full coercive control of his wife.
“What would he feel if it was his (first) wife or daughter who were subjected to that humiliation?
“This is disgraceful behaviour and the sentence deserves the weight to the recognition of the substantial harm he’s caused and in making him accountable for what he’s done.”
Magistrate Walsh sentenced the man to a two year and nine month intensive correction order.
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