Roberta Williams dodges jail after ordering attack on reality TV producer

Gangland widow Roberta Williams has escaped a jail sentence over a “terrifying” bid by her henchmen to extort money from a reality TV producer.

Gangland widow Roberta Williams and the henchmen she enlisted to bash and extort money from a reality TV producer will not spend a night in jail for the “terrifying” onslaught.

Williams, 52, along with Jake Sexton and Hassam Al Zwainy were on Friday sentenced in the County Court to community-based orders of varying lengths and conditions for the attack on Ryan Naumenko in July 2019.

But the former wife of slain drug lord Carl Williams has avoided having to do unpaid community work because recent surgery on joints in her hands and the full-time care she provides for her non-verbal autistic son would make that difficult for her.

Under the order, she will have to behave herself for two years, undergo some mental health assessments and treatment, and complete offender behaviour programs.

Judge Fiona Todd had considered her personal circumstances in dishing out the sentence, and warned her, if not for her guilty plea, she would have jailed her for 18 months.

“This case concerned a group of people who decided it was a good idea to make a reality TV show on mob wives, or, in particular, the lives of Ms Williams and her family,” Judge Todd said.

Roberta Williams

But when the project “soured” and Williams had received no promised payment from Mr Naumenko, Judge Todd said, she concocted a plan with Cloakroom Media boss Daniel De Silva to extort it from him.

“If one of the boys give him an open hand slap and push him to get your money it’s no big deal,” Williams texted De Silva, who was also owed $14,000 for his help in filming and producing the show at a Hampton AirBnB.

The pair lured Mr Naumenko to Cloakroom’s Collingwood studio, where De Silva, Williams, James Harrison, Sexton and Al Zwainy then ambushed him, tying him to a chair, threatening him with a gun, and repeatedly punching him in the face.

While Williams yelled “Kill the c--! He has no money”, Sexton told the father he would break his hands and get his friends to “burn” him.

The wannabe gangsters then forced Mr Naumenko to call his father and sister, who each transferred $1000 to Cloakroom Media’s bank account.

The offending was “serious, terrifying and traumatic for the victim”, Judge Todd said.

Williams, from Strathmore, pleaded guilty to blackmail, and recklessly and intentionally causing injury.

Sexton, 27, pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury, while Al Zwainy, 26, pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury.

Judge Todd convicted Williams and Sexton and placed them both on 24-month CCOs, but Sexton was ordered to do 150 hours of community work.

She did not mark a conviction against Al Zwainy, who was deemed to have only played a small role. His CCO will only be for 12 months.

She also commended him for handing himself into police after they had initially charged another man, who was not involved, after Mr Naumenko had identified the wrong person in Instagram photos.

De Silva was also earlier placed on an 18-month community correction order.

Harrison will be sentenced at a later date.