Peasenhall, near Saxmundham, man Raymond Birnie jailed for ‘vindictive’ smear campaign against step-sister during inheritance battle

A ‘vindictive’ and ‘manipulative’ man who launched a smear campaign against his step-sister during a battle over inheritance has been jailed.

Raymond Birnie, 75, of Hillcrest, Peasenhall, near Saxmundham, was jailed for nine years and three months at Huntingdon Law Courts on Monday.

He was found guilty of perverting the course of justice, witness intimidation, actual bodily harm, criminal damage, threatening a person with a bladed article in a private place plus two counts of failing to surrender bail.

The court was told Birnie got involved in a High Court clash with his brother and step-sister over their late father’s estate in August 2015.

In February 2017, he began sending emails to his step-sister under his brother’s name, urging her to stop the case ‘before it gets nasty’ and threatening to drive a car into her house.

These threats continued and he was also verbally abusive, accusing his step-sister of being a paedophile.

In December that year, he threatened to post leaflets accusing her and her husband of grooming children online.

He followed through on this threat, the court was told.

The leaflet, alleged to be from an online child activist group, included a photograph of the couple, their names and address and was sent to residents of the village near Ely where they lived.

Birnie was arrested and bailed in March 2018, having produced documents claiming his brother was behind the attack.

His brother was then arrested but later cleared of all charges after evidence was found that Birnie set up an account in his brother’s name to launch the campaign.

While he was on bail, Birnie attacked a High Court bailiff and threatened a chartered surveyor with a knife in Suffolk.

After a jury found Birnie guilty, he then went on the run, living in a campervan using false number plates.

Sentencing Birnie, Judge Mark Bishop said the campaign against his siblings was ‘manipulative’, ‘vindictive’, and ‘calculated to be as damaging and humiliating as possible’.

In addition to his sentence, he was handed an indefinite restraining order against his sister.

Following his sentencing, Detective Sergeant Sean Clery, from Cambridgeshire Police, said: “This was an incredibly complex case and Birnie caused immense distress for his relatives by smearing his sister and her husband as paedophiles and trying to frame his own brother.

"The consequences of Birnie’s actions have been life-changing and the damage he has caused is immeasurable.

"I am pleased that justice has prevailed and applaud the victims for having the courage and resilience to endure through what has been a difficult journey.”