Minhang District prosecutors have approved the arrest of a man accused of blackmailing two women after photographing them in the nude.

The defendant, Tu Qiang, 29, owned an animation design studio and earned barely 4,000 yuan (US$585) a month.

His income proved grossly inadequate when he met a new girl friend this year. Prosecutors said this is why Tu decided to try his hand at blackmail.

On September 2, Tu allegedly approached a girl surnamed Zhang in a restaurant and invited her to listen to music in his studio.

The designer then persuaded Zhang to drink some red wine, which made her groggy, prosecutors said. While she was asleep, Tu allegedly took more than 10 photographs of her in the nude and uploaded these onto his personal blog.

When Zhang woke up, Tu allegedly showed her the photographs and demanded that she pay him, threatening to make the pictures public if she refused to give him money.

Zhang was forced to handed over 5,000 yuan before leaving the studio, according to investigators.

A week later, Tu used the same scheme on another girl surnamed Tang, and got 7,600 yuan from her, prosecutors said.

But Tang went to the police and filed a complaint. Tu's was then taken into custody. Zhang's case came up during investigation.

(Shanghai Daily October 15, 2008)