Agencies/London
Socialite and model Tamara Ecclestone hit out at an ex-boyfriend jailed over a £200,000 blackmail plot against her, saying that she would never have paid the “disgusting human being” a penny.
The 28-year-old daughter of Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone described Derek Rose, 33, as a “sick” bully who came back into her life 10 years after they dated when she was 17, to try to get money from her.
He was jailed for four years last week over a plot which saw Ecclestone sent an e-mail claiming Rose had been offered £200,000 to sell his story to the tabloid press after she starred in a reality television show, despite no newspaper having made such an offer.
Ecclestone told ITV’s Daybreak that giving evidence in his trial brought back “horrendous memories” but added: “It wasn’t how much money he demanded, he could have demanded £5 and a packet of crisps, I never would have paid him - I won’t be held to ransom.
“I think he is a bully, I think he is a disgusting human being and I would always stand up for what is right.”
The blackmail arose from an e-mail sent on November 16, 2011, after Ecclestone had starred in Billion Dollar Girl, a reality television programme exploring her life as a rich youngster, and after she had generated publicity in charity campaigns.
Rose, of Arlington Road, Camden, north London, dated Ecclestone in 2002 when she was 17, before changing his name by deed poll from Jonathan Ketterman. He had already sold a story about their relationship soon after they split.
“I felt disgusted,” Ecclestone told Daybreak. “I felt like this person had already sold a story, made money, caused me and my family so much stress and so much anxiety. I really thought at that point when the initial story had come out that we had drawn a line under it and that I would never see this person again.”