A Worcester blackmailer targeted gay men – including a company boss – with demands for money.

Lee Taylor threatened to expose the businessman’s sexual orientation which he had kept secret from his staff – and even his own family.

Taylor also warned an openly gay man he would accuse him of rape if he didn’t pay up for sex, Worcester Crown Court was told.

Charles Hardy, prosecuting, said Taylor intimidated men using toilets in Gueluvelt Park, Worcester, and inside the city’s cathedral.

Jailing 20-year-old Taylor, of no fixed address, for four and half years, Judge Alistair McCreath said he had carried out “unpleasant and ugly” offences.

For seven months, he had caused the Worcestershire businessman anxiety over his personal secret.

And he had threatened to go to the police with an untrue allegation of sexual assault by a homosexual following a consensual gay encounter.

Mr Hardy said that Taylor, who wanted cash to pay for bed and breakfast accommodation in Worcester, warned the firm’s boss he had “better find some money” or he would tell his customers he was a gay sex attacker.

Last year, the businessman handed over hundreds of pounds at up to £70 a time.

But after Taylor threatened to smash a brick into the face of his victim’s friend, the man went to police on July 29.

A month later Taylor, who pleaded guilty to five counts of blackmail, became angry and abusive in a shop when the businessman refused another demand for £30.

Mr Hardy said that Taylor was arrested on August 25 and released on bail. But he then made contact with a gay man through an internet website. They met in March this year and went to the complainant’s flat for sex.

Afterwards, Taylor demanded payment and showed the man a prison tag, warning that he knew how to hurt people. He also threatened to open a window and shout rape. The victim handed over £45.

Taylor later tricked the man’s landlord into letting him into the victim’s flat, where he discovered his bank account and driving licence details.

The defendant had a record for theft, assault and making a malicious phone call to a probation officer. Michael Aspinall, defending, said Taylor was thrown out of his home by his mother when she couldn’t cope with him.

He had a split personality, self harmed and had made a suicide attempt.

Mr Aspinall said: “He needed money for bed and breakfast payments and to buy food. He wants to apologise to the victims.

“Neither had to go through the humiliation of giving evidence at a trial.”