Ex-cop found guilty of blackmailing woman into sex act

A former police officer already behind bars for vile sex offences has been found guilty of forcing a woman to commit a sex act after threatening to release intimate images of her.

Vaughan Mark Hildebrand, 35, appeared before Downing Centre District Court on Friday charged with sexual intercourse without consent and stalking and intimidation.

Hildebrand was sentenced to in 2019 to 20 years in prison, at least 15 of which behind bars, over the decade-long harassment of 15 women, four of whom he forced into sex.

In his judgment, Judge Christopher O’Brien said the Crown had found beyond reasonable doubt that Hildebrand had earlier forced a woman to have sex with him in 2008.

The court was told Hildebrand became friends with the woman after meeting through a mutual friend in about March, 2008, when he was 19-years-old and the woman was aged 18.

The pair began chatting online over MSN Messenger where the Crown alleged the former police officer asked for messages of the woman’s breasts and for her to come to his home.

When she arrived, the Crown alleged Hildebrand grabbed her arm and, leading her to the side of the home, demanded she perform oral sex or he would send images of her breasts.

The Crown further alleged Hildebrand knew the woman did not consent and messaged her to come over again. When she did not, he again allegedly threatened to send the images.

Hildebrand is further alleged by the Crown to have threatened to send people involved in organised crime to the woman’s 19th birthday party at the Annandale Hotel to ruin it.

The woman did not tell anyone about the assault in 2008 and it wasn’t until more than a decade later that she confided in police after news stories of Hildebrand’s arrest in 2019.

“It is the Crown case that after reading news articles sent to her by a colleague, the victim first became aware of the accused's arrest and pending sentence,” Judge O’Brien said.

The court was told the woman told her partner that Hildebrand was “bad news” and later told a friend after reading the article that the former police officer was a “sex pest”.

In his judgment, Judge O’Brien said the woman felt “disgusted and humiliated” and noted the “compelling” evidence she gave about the proximity of the council garbage bins.

Of her cross-examination in court, Judge O’Brien said the woman was “calm, straightforward” and deliberate, adding he “did not discern any exaggeration or embellishment”.

“In my view, she was a compelling and honest witness such that I can safely act upon her evidence … (which) was supported in crucial areas by the other evidence in the trial.”

Judge O’Brien said of Hildebrand in his evidence “gave untruthful evidence”, in particular about a later meeting he claimed had occurred with the woman years later.

For his part, Hildebrand denied requesting or receiving photos of the woman’s breast and claimed that the woman had consented to the sexual act and had offered to do so.

In evidence, Hildebrand said “it came out of left field. You could have knocked me over with a feather” and the incident “still sticks with me because of how forward she was”.

His lawyers argued during the trial that the victim had been concocted in collaboration with news articles about Hildebrand, claims ultimately dismissed by the judge.

Hildebrand will return before the court next year for sentencing, about five and a half years after he was sentenced for what were chronically later sexual offences.

He used fake identities and random numbers to scam women into sending him nude photos, and abused his status as a police officer to force some to perform sex acts on him.