German man admits blackmailing Cindy Crawford

Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany - A 26-year-old man admitted to the alleged blackmail of US former supermodel Cindy Crawford at a German court hearing on Tuesday.

(Photo) Handcuffs are removed from Edis K., alleged blackmailer  of US top model Cindy Crawford, as he covers his face and hides his identity behind a file at the County Court in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany, 09 March 2010. The 26-year-old  has confessed to the blackmailing  of the model with a picture of her daughter.

At the start of the trial, the defendant said he had used a photo of Crawford's daughter to extort money from the fashion icon after he was deported from the US to Germany.

The photo shows Crawford's daughter at the age of seven, posing bound and gagged on a chair.

The defendant is thought to have acquired the picture, apparently taken during a game of 'cops and robbers', from a nanny in the Crawford household last summer.

The man, who had earlier confessed under police interrogation, was alleged to have threatened to sell the picture to the press.

In court, the defendant denied prosecution claims that he had already blackmailed Crawford on US soil.

He said that Crawford's husband, night club owner Rande Gerber, had paid him a 1,000-dollar (730-euro) "indemnity."

However he insisted that the idea of blackmailing the couple only occurred to him in Germany, as he held Gerber responsible for his deportation from the US.

DPA