Man who hit headlines for taking on council is jailed weeks later

A comedy hypnotist who hit the headlines when he successfully challenged Bolton council over a rule preventing him from performing has been jailed.

Robert Temple persuaded councillors to lift the bizarre 42-year ban on hypnotism events in the town last month. He went on to perform his show ‘Red Raw’ in front of an audience of hundreds at the Albert Halls on February 10.

However, Temple is now behind bars after using 'insidious tactics' to hack into women's social media accounts so that he could sell their intimate photos online.

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The 36-year-old was jailed for eight months after he admitted a slew of fraud charges, computer misuse offences, and concealing or transferring criminal property, Chronicle Live reports. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that in May 2021, police received a report from Action Fraud about an online forum in which users could make anonymous requests for explicit photographs of women.

Temple hacked the Snapchat accounts of two women and subsequently downloaded private pictures, including topless and nude pictures, to then sell them online. The unauthorised social media account access was traced by investigators to the defendant's home.

Furthermore, Temple committed identity fraud to mask his criminal activities by setting up cryptocurrency accounts in a woman's name but operating it himself, without her knowledge. Using the accounts, he concealed funds raised from selling the hacked, intimate photos.

According to the CPS, Temple, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, admitted in interview that he had used these accounts to layer funds obtained from selling items obtained illegally.

Annette Thomas, senior