Desperate husband uses naked pictures of his wife to try extort Sh320 million from her billionaire dad

UK: A British husband tried to extort Sh320 million from his wife by posting naked pictures on her on the internet, a court heard.

James Casbolt, 37, said he would not post the explicit photos online of Haley Meijer, who was to inherit an £8.5billion fortune from her father, American hypermarket tycoon Hank Meijer.

She had taken the pictures for Casbolt and sent them to him while he was in the army.

Casbolt, of St Ives, Cornwall, had met Meijer in 2009 and the unlikely couple then moved to America but her father Hank Meijer never approved.

Hank, along with his brother Doug is chief executive and co-chairman of supermarket chain Meijer, which has more then 200 US stores.

Casbolt and Haley ran into problems and he threatened to "destroy" the Meijers after she pledged to divorce him and never let him see their son.

He then began to post nude pictures of her on porn sites - demanding £2m to remove them.

Casbolt admitted sending threatening texts and emails containing pictures of his ex as well as posting images and bizarre claims about her online.

Haley initially "found him charming" and they married in 2011 but Prosecutor Philip Lee told Truro Crown Court things changed in 2013.

He said: "It was then that he told her that he would dedicate the rest of his life to destroying her and threatened to post the explicit photos on the internet.

"He said to her 'I will now release porn pictures of you to the world'. He then immediately followed out that threat and posted them on Facebook.

"He also asserted that Mrs Meijer was a prostitute and continued to post sexually explicit photos on the internet.

According to Forbes, the Meijer brothers are worth an estimated $8.5 billion, ranking them as 153rd in the list of the world's richest billionaires.

After their divorce Mrs Meijer lived alone with their child in America.

But the defendant made threats to say he would only stop posting images if she brought their son over to the UK after he moved into a modest flat in St Ives, Cornwall.

But he said if she didn't he was "inexhaustible" and claimed "I could do this for years."

Around the same time, the court heard he posted one of the images under a fake name offering massage services in Mrs Meijer's property, where she lived alone with their son.

Mr Lee said: "In January 2014 she got a restraining order but that did nothing to defer the defendant.

"The following month he started mentioning the £75,000 pre-nuptial agreement."

When asked why he said: "Because I love my son and they are telling me I will never see him again."

The court heard Miss Meijer suffered depression and was unable to talk about what had happened through embarrassment.

Her relationship broke down with her father who never approved of the wedding.