deepack wrote:I do understand the tape was made covertly may be it's an escort thing to protect and bribe or ... just this particular escort up to this business of recording.
I think not. If an escort agency was to be known to do that, it would go out of business very quickly, a) because no one would trust it any more, and b) because the owners would be arrested and imprison. However, I suspect it would be next to impossible to "ask nicely" and get them to do anything because of the semi-legal or criminal nature of their business, e.g. many "escort agencies" are essentially 'pimps' which is illegal.
What you are describing is not "escorting" it is prostitution and although sex for money is not illegal, it is illegal to pimp out prostitutes. The woman is a prostitute. An escort goes out on dates, a prostitute has sex for money. There is nothing in what you have written to suggest that she is anything more than a prostitute and the meeting was purely for sex even if, for your friend, it was therapeutic sex. For example, you say, "next customer" etc as if there was a queue of men and that sounds like a brothel.
Managing a brothel, or assisting in the management of a brothel, is an offence which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. Therefore it appears your friend has landed himself in a semi-criminal world.
There was a case recently where a man made a sex tape of a woman without her permission and then showed it online. He was
put into prison for ten months and made the subject of a 10-year notification order having been
found guilty of voyeurism. That suggests to me the courts would accept this is a 'criminal act'.
Your friend might be able to, at least, have the trustee charged with voyeurism for secretly having the tape made, watching it and sharing it with others.I agree it is sometimes difficult to get the police to do anything but he has a complaint or harassment and they have to take it and investigate. It's their job to interview people and find the evidence. He can remind them of this case. Basically, 'civil' means you have to get a lawyer, 'criminal' means the police have to get involved. The secret is to "keep things simple". Don't go to the police or a lawyer in a mess and expect them to do something. Your friend needs to go to a counsellor/therapist for that. Stick to something simple, e.g. voyeurism, blackmail etc.
Under the
Theft Act 1968, blackmail consists of making an unwarranted demand with menaces with a view to making a gain or causing a loss. Menaces do not need to be threats, e.g. where a victim is "particularly vulnerable or of a timid nature", a jury may find menaces existed where the one carrying them out was aware of the affect of his actions on the victim. For it to be
blackmail, certain factors to be proven. Has the trustee made any specific demands to your friend or his family?
What is interesting for us to question is what the trustee of a public charity is doing following someone into a semi-criminal world and, allegedly, bribing a prostitute to make an illegal sex tape. It sounds a little hard to believe but not impossible I suppose ... what nationality was the prostitute?
If there is any convincing truth to this, I'd be very happy to help him make up a complaint to the Charity Commission. As he is a trustee of a public charity which takes in million of pounds per year and benefits from donations of family properties, there is a 'public interest' in the story and so a very good reason to discuss it.
Some of these individuals are 'public figures' promoting themselves on the basis of appearing "holy" and virtuous, therefore do not have the same protect as private individuals do.