Cindy Crawford's alleged blackmailer to face trial

Feb 2, 2010, 14:22 GMT

Stuttgart - A man who confessed in part to blackmailing former supermodel Cindy Crawford last year is to face trial, prosecutors in Stuttgart said on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old man stands accused of threatening to publish a photo showing Crawford's daughter, then aged seven, in a bound and gagged pose. The family said the photo was taken during a game of 'cops and robbers.'

It is thought that the accused obtained the photo from a former nanny of the girl, in mid-2009.

Crawford and her husband, night club owner Rande Gerber, said the man, who was in the US, had threatened to sell the photo to the press, but returned it to them after they paid 1000 dollars (720 euros).

Two days later however, he allegedly demanded more money since he still had an electronic copy of the photo. The Crawford family did not respond to a further demand for 5,000 dollars in September.

Shortly afterwords, the alleged blackmailer was taken into custody in the US for an immigration violation and deported to Germany.

Prosecutors said the suspect contacted the couple again from Germany, demanding a 100,000-dollar transfer to an account in Turkey.

The man travelled to Turkey, where he has family roots, but allegedly feared arrest when his blackmail attempts became public, as the Turkish authorities could extradite him to the US.

Instead, he returned to Germany and turned himself in to the German police. He was arrested in November.

If found guilty, the man could face up to five years in prison.