City Fund Manager Denies Fake Porno Frame-Up Of Female Colleague

Davide Buccheri Outside Court

A City investment fund manager today denied creating pornographic images of a young female colleague to discredit her to bosses, 

Italian Davide Buccheri, 25, was employed by the M&G Group - part of financial giants Prudential - where academic high-achiever Rebecca Baker, 22, also worked.

He appeared at City of London Magistrates Court, where he pleaded not guilty to one count of harassing Durham University graduate Ms Baker at the 5 Laurence Pountney Hill HQ between September 9, 2016 and May 29, this year.

The charge accuses Buccheri of obtaining images from Ms Baker’s social media accounts and editing them with pornographic images of females of similar appearance and informing her employer of the images to discredit her.

He will return for an all-day trial on December 21 and was bailed on condition he does not contact Ms Baker a HR department ex-colleague and any employee of M&G Group.

Prosecutor Miss Sonya Foxsmith told the court: “The complainant, Ms Baker, at the relevant time was an intern with the company and met Mr. Buccheri, who worked at the firm.

“He made romantic advances towards her that were rejected and she made a complaint to the HR department.”

Ms Baker left the company for a short time before beginning full-time work as post-grad employee.

“Mr. Buccheri uploaded number of images of Ms Baker with females of similar appearance that were pornographic that he obtained from the internet.

“They were edited and cropped by Mr. Buccheri to make it look like Ms Baker and that is placed in a gallery showing genuine images of Ms Baker.

“These were revealed to the HR department by Mr. Buccheri via the ‘Whistleblower’  scheme.

Academic: Rebecca Baker

“It is a planned and sophisticated approach to cause her distress.

“During a police search various items of computer equipment were seized from his address, particularly a laptop which was interrogated that brings very strong evidence against Mr. Buccheri.”

The court heard the online gallery was created by an account called ‘Flying Gerbil’ registered in Buccheri’s name, with the same date of birth.

“It can be proved this defendant created these galleries with the sole intention to harass Ms Baker.

“It would fall to Mr. Buccheri to explain who, but him had access to creating that gallery.

‘The harassment covers a wider period because of his first romantic advances towards Ms Baker.

“The misconduct began when he was an intern.”  

Buccheri was employed as a Fund Manager Assistant for twelve months up until August, this year after completing the company’s Investment Graduate Scheme.

City HQ: M&G Group

A finance and equities and annuities specialist, Buccheri joined the company as an investment graduate in September, 2015.

He obtained a Master of Science, Finance from The London School of Economics and Political Science and is a graduate of Milan’s Universita Bocconi.

History grad Ms Baker left 800 year-old Colchester Royal Grammar School, where she was Female Head of House, with five Grade A* A-Levels.

Originally from Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk she was also an academic high-achiever at Colchester County High School, which she left with twelve GCSE’s at A*.

Like Buccheri she became a permanent employee at M&G Group after joining their investment graduate scheme and began full-time last month.

Founded in 1931 as Municipal & General Securities Company Limited, the firm launched the first ever unit trust that year.