A reporter told today how he was approached by an alleged blackmailer trying to sell a story about socialite Tamara Ecclestone from her ex-boyfriend.
Jakir Uddin, 20, showed Sun journalist Alex West a video on his laptop of Derek Rose talking about his relationship with the eldest daughter of Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, Southwark crown court heard.
Rose, 33, went out with Ms Ecclestone when she was 17 but they split up in 2002. He later changed his name from Jonathan Ketterman. Mr West said of his meeting with Uddin at a London hotel: “The issue of money was obviously the key aspect of our meeting.”
He told the court he later spoke to the socialite at a charity event and warned her that an ex-boyfriend was trying to sell a story. Rose and Uddin are alleged to have sent an email to Ms Ecclestone’s then manager Dana Malmstrom falsely claiming a tabloid had offered Rose £200,000.
They allegedly threatened to release the story unless the cash was handed over. Rose, of Camden, and Uddin, of Birmingham, both deny blackmail. The trial continues.
