Library › Violence and self-defence
Blackmail, kidnapping, false imprisonment and threats to kill
Blackmail (Theft Act 1968 s.21) is making an unwarranted demand with menaces with a view to gain or intent to cause loss; it can only be tried in the Crown Court and carries up to 14 years. Kidnapping and false imprisonment are common law offences with a maximum of life imprisonment, and threats to kill (Offences Against the Person Act 1861 s.16) carries up to 10 years.
Blackmail
Blackmail is making an unwarranted demand with menaces, with a view to gain or intending to cause loss (Theft Act 1968 s.21).
- A demand is unwarranted unless the person believed both that they had reasonable grounds for it and that the menaces were a proper way to reinforce it. Once raised, the prosecution must disprove this. A threat to do something unlawful will hardly ever be proper.
- What is demanded does not matter, nor who would carry out the threat. Dishonesty is not required.
- Menaces is an ordinary word. A threat that deliberately exploits the victim's unusual timidity, or one meant to frighten that did not in fact affect the victim, can still amount to menaces.
- Indictable only, maximum 14 years.
Sextortion, demanding money or more images under threat of sharing intimate images, is blackmail. Threatening to share an intimate image is also an offence in itself (Sexual Offences Act 2003 s.66B(4), maximum 2 years). Where the victim is a child, sexual offences may also be charged (see Rape, assault by penetration and sexual assault and Indecent images of children).
Kidnapping and false imprisonment
Both are common law offences, indictable only, maximum life.
- Kidnapping: taking or carrying away a person by force or fraud, without their consent and without lawful excuse (R v D [1984] AC 778).
- False imprisonment: unlawful and intentional or reckless restraint of a person's freedom of movement from a particular place (R v Rahman (1985) 81 Cr App R 349). No movement is needed.
- Consent and lawful excuse are the usual issues. The Law Commission recommended statutory replacements in 2014, but the common law still applies.
Threats to kill
Making a threat, without lawful excuse, to kill the person or someone else, intending them to fear it would be carried out (Offences Against the Person Act 1861 s.16). Either way, maximum 10 years. A threat against an emergency worker acting as such must be treated as aggravating (Sentencing Act 2020 s.67). For threats in a course of conduct, see Harassment, stalking and controlling or coercive behaviour.
Sentencing
Sentencing Council guidelines for both came into force on 1 April 2025.
- Blackmail: community order to 10 years. The most serious category starts at 6 years (range 4 to 10); the least serious at 6 months.
- Kidnap and false imprisonment: community order to 16 years. The most serious category starts at 11 years (range 8 to 16); the least serious at 26 weeks. Kidnap and false imprisonment can attract an extended sentence.
In practice
Blackmail cases turn on what the person believed about their right to demand; kidnap cases on consent, duration and excuse. Messages are often the key evidence. Early advice matters, especially before interview.
Read the full guide on theodorous.uk
Authorities: Theft Act 1968 s.21; Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 Sch.1 paras 5 and 28; Offences Against the Person Act 1861 s.16; Sexual Offences Act 2003 s.66B; Sentencing Act 2020 s.67; R v D [1984] AC 778; R v Rahman (1985) 81 Cr App R 349; Law Commission, Simplification of the Criminal Law: Kidnapping and Related Offences (Law Com No 355, 2014); CPS, Theft Act Offences prosecution guidance; Sentencing Council, Blackmail guideline and Kidnap/False imprisonment guideline (both in force 1 April 2025)