A woman who tricked a man into sending her naked selfies and then used them to extort almost €2,000 not to report him to his wife was today handed a suspended sentence.

Cospicua resident Rosianne Cassar, 22, a single mother of a five-month old child, downloaded photos from a porn website and sent them to the man with whom she was conversing on Facebook, Magistrate Neville Camilleri heard.

After sending the photographs, she urged him to send her pictures of himself too.

On receiving them, she began using these photographs to demand money from the man, whose name cannot be mentioned by court order.

She threatened to tell his wife that he had sent these photographs and also threatened to place them on the internet and tarnish his reputation.

The extortion took place between June last year and April this year, when the victim paid the woman a total of €1,770.

With the intent to extort more money, on Wednesday Ms Cassar contacted the man's wife through Facebook. At that point she was reported to the police.

Defence lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo described the actions of their client as “mere folly” and argued that the crime was prompted by Ms Cassar’s dire economic situation since she was an unemployed single mother.

In submissions on punishment, prosecuting Police Inspector Josric Mifsud told the court that his primary concern and that of the victims was the destruction of the compromising photographs and that she be ordered to leave the man and woman in peace.

Magistrate Camilleri handed the woman a two-year prison sentence suspended for four years and ordered her to repay the €1,770 within six months.

He also gave the prosecution permission to hang on to the woman's laptop and mobile phone until technical experts permanently delete the photographs.

Moreover, the magistrate upheld a request for a ban on the publication of the name of the victim and his wife but turned down the request for Ms Cassar's name to be withheld from publication.