A Hunan Province woman has been sentenced to six years in prison in Baoshan district for attempting to blackmail her ex-boyfriend with a video of them having sex, the local court said Thursday.

The defendant, Yang Fangfang, was charged with extortion for threatening to report to police that her ex-boyfriend had raped her unless he paid her 1.5 million yuan ($239,700) in cash and gave her an antique she believed was worth 2 million yuan, according to a press release from Baoshan District People's Court.

Yang met the divorced man, who was not identified, on a dating website after she began an internship at a hospital in Shanghai in August 2012. They began a relationship after the man, who claimed to be an antiques expert, promised to find her a job.

The man did not find Yang a job, so she returned to Changsha, Hunan Province, after her internship ended in May 2013.

On November 15, Yang asked the man to meet her at a hotel on Siping Road in Yangpu district, the court said. The couple had sex, which Yang recorded with a hidden video camera that she had set up in advance.

Two days later, she demanded that he pay her 1.5 million yuan and give her an antique that he once told her was worth 2 million yuan, the court said. The antique turned out to be a replica worth about 3,000 yuan.

The man said he would pay her in December.

In the meantime, he contacted the police and worked out a plan to catch Yang the next time he met her.

Police officers arrested Yang on December 20 at a restaurant on Shuichan Road in Baoshan district, where she and the man had arranged to meet.

Yang said she blackmailed the man because her family was poor and needed money.

The court also fined Yang 10,000 yuan.

Global Times