A former boyfriend of Tamara Ecclestone has been sentenced to four years in jail for trying to blackmail her. Derek Rose, 33, who dated the model and socialite in 2002, was convicted this week at Southwark Crown Court.He had plotted to blackmail Tamara for £200,000. An email sent to her manager in November 2011 suggested he had been offered that sum to sell his story to the press.
It referred to the possibility of a "non-release fee" and a confidentiality contract - but in reality, no newspaper had made an offer.
In sentencing, Judge Andrew Goymer said, "This was an audacious attempt to obtain a large sum of money. "The court heard that Derek Rose dated Tamara when she was 17, before changing his name by deed poll from Jonathan Ketterman.
In 2002, shortly after their acrimonious split, he made £10,000 from selling the story of their relationship. He had not been in contact with the F1 heiress for more than a decade before his blackmail attempt, which followed her appearance in Billion Dollar Girl, a reality TV programme exploring her life as a rich youngster. "You felt extremely hurt, and within a few days you were selling your story to a tabloid newspaper, and that speaks volumes about your true character," the judge said, referring to Mr Rose's original tell-all.
"She came to your attention again in November 2011 when she was the subject of a television series. "The email that you sent on 16 November in which you threatened to reveal personal details was not the product of a broken hear. All that was long in the past. "It was nothing more than a cynical and greedy attempt to extract a large sum of money," he told the defendant. "No doubt you thought that £200,000, which is a large sum to most people, would be small change to somebody with the amount of money that she and her family are reputed to have. "You also thought that for this reason they would readily part with it to buy your silence. She did not do this."
