R vs MILROY-SLOAN , PCoJ ( HAMILTON'S , 2003 )

Hamilton accuser guilty of perverting justice

16th MAY , 2003.
DAILY MAIL online.

 A mother of four was found guilty today of falsely accusing Neil and Christine Hamilton of rape.

Twice-married Nadine Milroy-Sloan, 29, was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey of two charges of perverting the course of justice.
She complained to police in May 2001 that she had been attacked by former Tory minister Mr Hamilton and his wife in a flat in Ilford, Essex.
She claimed she had been lured to the flat by 62-year-old Barry Lehaney, who she said had told her he was the Hamiltons' chauffeur.
But Milroy-Sloan, who had a criminal record, had never met the couple and invented the story to make money.
Two days before the alleged attack, she went to see publicist Max Clifford with a story about the Hamiltons being involved in a vice ring and a tax scam.
When the couple emerged from a London police station after their arrest a few weeks later, dozens of journalists were waiting to quiz them about the rape allegations.
The jury of ten men and two women agreed with the prosecution that Milroy-Sloan, of Peterhouse Road, Grimsby, Lincs, was a "cunning" fantasist who had come up with the scheme to find fame and fortune.
 

Upset

 

In a statement read to the court, Mrs Hamilton, 53, said she became so upset when she was arrested with her 54-year-old husband that she had to see a police doctor.
"The whole thing was preposterous and false. It was a deeply frightening experience," she said.
The trauma the Hamiltons went through was captured by cameras filming an episode of the BBC2 programme When Louis Met... with the alternative celebrity interviewer Louis Theroux.
The jury heard that Mr Clifford, who has acted on behalf of dozens of people involved in so-called kiss and tell stories, told Milroy-Sloan she could expect around £100,000 from the media if she could prove her vice ring claims.
Prosecutor Orlando Pownall QC said she then set out to "get the evidence" and arranged to see Mr Lehaney, with whom she had been exchanging explicit e-mails via an Internet chatroom.
At his flat, Milroy-Sloan told Lehaney "she wanted to bring girls to his flat and asked him to arrange a meeting with Neil and Christine Hamilton for the purpose of a sexual encounter".
Milroy-Sloan complained to police the next day that she had been attacked.
But Mr Pownall showed the jury a photograph taken of the blonde which she said was taken after the alleged attack.
She was sitting on a bed, smiling and holding a glass of red wine up "as if to say cheers".
Mr Pownall asked: "Is this a woman who looks like she has just been raped? Every picture tells a story."
Milroy-Sloan told the court she had been attacked by three men and a woman.
She said she had been led to believe by Mr Lehaney that he was the Hamilton's chauffeur and they were there that night.
 

Apology

 

But she "apologised" if she had made an "honest mistake".
She said: "If I have made a mistake, I am deeply, deeply sorry."
Mr Pownall said the Hamiltons were totally innocent and had been at Claridges Hotel on the night of the alleged rape.
Mr Pownall told the jury: "You can be sure Ms Milroy-Sloan was not raped or indecently assaulted at all that evening by anybody, let alone anyone named by her.
"You may entertain no doubt that her actions were in some measure born of fantasy, but principally of a desire for financial reward and celebrity status."
He added: "Having heard all the evidence, you may well consider that the defendant suffers from a personality disorder."
Milroy-Sloan's claims led to Mr Lehaney being arrested on May 7 and the Hamiltons being detained on August 10 "in a blaze of wholly unwarranted publicity".
Mr Pownall said: "As you can imagine, the consequences of a concocted allegation of rape upon those falsely accused were devastating.
"They were not involved in the events which led to their arrests and public humiliation."
The allegations hung over the Hamiltons, who were not called to give evidence in court, for more than a fortnight.
They were finally told they would not be charged 18 days after their arrest.
Milroy-Sloan, who recently completed a teaching course at Grimsby College, was described as both "naive and cunning in equal measure".
She told the court she had been paid £50,000 by a Sunday newspaper to reveal her identity.
Half the money had gone to her parents for stories they had done and £17,500 had been put in trust for her children.
The rape allegation was not the first time Milroy-Sloan made false complaints to the police.
In 1997, she was convicted of a breach of the peace after attacking a friend. Six weeks later, she told police the woman had since attacked her in the street.
Her mother-in-law Karen Sloan said she had also told police that her elderly, terminally-ill mother was a drug dealer who had hit her.