Sex Scandal Man found Hanging

Written by Angela Gooch on September 7th, 2007 in Bizarre, Criminal, Deaths, Human Interest, People, Sex Scandal, Suicides.

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Source: Skegness Standard 29th July 1994

Sex blackmail scandal victim, Derek Freshney, has been found dead in a garage at his Friskney home.
Stunned neighbours and children watched a macabre scene unfold as police using crowbars forced entry into a garage in Church Road.
There they discovered the body of the bachelor and retired bank manager.
It is believed that his body had hung undiscovered from the end of a rope for up to four weeks.
Members of a village youth club broke off their game of rounders to watch as police loaded a body bag onto a private ambulance and drove away.
Boston Coroner’s officer, Peter Hutson, confirmed that the body of Mr Freshney had been discovered on Monday, July 18.
Villagers described the 54-year-old as a loner.
Lincoln Crown court heard how a former neighbour of the dead man, father-of-four Graham Hunter, blackmailed Mr Freshney.
It was alleged that Mr Freshney had asked to watch Hunter and his girlfriend performing a sexual act.
But Hunter had been paid £500 ‘compensation’ after refusing the man’s request.
In February of this year, Hunter sent Mr Freshney an anonymous letter demanding £3,000.
A jury at Lincoln Crown Court also heard how Hunter had taunted his victim by sending a card saying “What will people say shen they find out?”.
He was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting a blackmail charge.
This week, villagers told the Standard how they had tought Mr Freshney an “eccentric” but always smartly dressed in collar and tie.
Although he frequented two local pubs, the Barley Mow and the Anchor, he did not befriend locals.
But one Frisney couple who knew him well were Peter and Anne Knap. “He wasn’t a pervert or anything like that.
“He had an amazing calculator like mind and could remember the price of goods from shop to shop.”
Before his death, Mr Freshney had told the milkman he was going on holiday.
The alarm is believe to have been raised after a passer-by notices a strange smell coming from the garage.
An inquest held yesterday, Thursday. in Boston, recorded a verdict of suicide.