Shamed ex-Linby football boss Lewis Saxby finally jailed for using sexual photos in bid to blackmail women

Lewis Saxby appeared before Nottingham Crown Court today (Tuesday, April 5) where he was jailed for five years and six months.

Sentencing, Judge Stuart Rafferty QC also ruled that he must wear an electronic tag for 200 days following his release, a court spokesman said.

The 32-year-old had already been told to expect prison after he changed his plea to guilty at the 11th hour, shortly before his trial was due to start in November last year.

Sentencing had initially been planned for January, but following repeated delays, he has finally been brought to justice.

The court heard that between February 2016 and May 2017, Saxby engaged in controlling behaviour with a woman he was in an intimate relationship with – threatening to publish sexual photographs of her, sending abusive texts, seizing her mobile phone, and refusing to collect the victim’s sister unless she agreed to have sex with him.

Saxby also admitted that, between July 2019 and January 2020, he had blackmailed another woman by demanding money in return for him not publishing intimate images of her.

Similar charges against a third woman, dating from May 2019, were also admitted by Saxby, of Lymington Road, Mansfield, when he appeared before the court.

Saxby had also appeared before Nottingham Crown Court, where he admitted fraud to the tune of £89,000 - with court records showing that he had claimed he needed the money to fight an unfair dismissal claim.

Separate counts of voyeurism and taking sexual photographs of a female without her consent were ordered to lie on file.

He also admitted another blackmail charge on a fourth woman – again threatening to publish sexual photographs of her.

Speaking after sentencing, Detective Constable Mary Jones, of Nottinghamshire Police and led the investigation, said: "I am delighted on behalf of all his victims that Saxby has finally been exposed for what he truly is - a devious and dishonest conman who sought to exploit and humiliate a series of wholly innocent women in one of the most appalling ways imaginable.

"The impact his behaviour and the subsequent police investigation has had on them has been extremely damaging and I am grateful to them for the bravery and dignity they have shown throughout this process.

"Saxby thought he could bully and manipulate each of them with impunity, but in Nottinghamshire Police and the wider criminal justice system he finally came up against people he could not control."