"Blackmail-Gang" wanted £5k for Rooney picture
12-12-2011
The camera, which held snaps of the WAG, her Manchester United and England striker husband Wayne and their son Kai, went missing at a Black Eyed Peas concert she went to in May.
Prosecutor Deborah Gould told a jury at Manchester crown court: “Anyone who saw the contents... would have realised they had a commercial value because of the Rooneys’ celebrity.”
Jennifer Green, 25, and Steven Malcolm, 42, deny blackmail and handling stolen goods. Green’s boyfriend Lee Platt, 28, has already admitted the charges and is in custody.
The court heard a man by the name of Liam Price rang the club claiming to have bought the Samsung camera and was asked to return it.
Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford then called him back and offered to pay costs plus expenses but was asked for £1,000.
He said in a statement read to the jury: “I told him the newspapers would not buy stolen goods, so there was no market for this.
“I told him he was being very silly and I would call the police if he continued.”
Three weeks later, the club was again contacted by “Liam Price” who now wanted £5,000 for the memory card.
On the same day, he also rang Hello magazine and offered to sell the card.
A tape of the conversation was made by editors who advised the man to return it to the Rooneys.
Experts matched Platt’s voice to “Liam Price’s”, the court heard.
The police were called and an undercover officer posing as the Rooneys’ publicity agent met with Malcolm at a hotel.
A folder he produced containing thumbnail prints of about 400 images from the camera had Green and Platt’s fingerprints on it.
The trial of Malcolm, of Chorlton, Manchester, and Green, of Blackley, Manchester, continues.
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