'Obsessive and controlling' Warsop woman falsely accused ex-husband of rape

Sixty-year-old Lena Hallam's relationship broke down because of her behaviour and the ‘final straw’ came when she threw a table at him, prosecutor Stuart Lody told Nottingham Crown Court.

Despite this, they continued to have an ‘amicable relationship’ and would meet on Sundays to have sex and spend the day together.

She bought ‘risque lingerie’ in anticipation of meeting on Sunday, June 30, 2019, when they had consensual sex and later told friends how much she enjoyed it.

But he wanted to move on with his life and when he met a woman while on holiday in Thailand shortly afterwards ‘her love turned into rage’, Mr Lody said.

"It may have been that he would have ended up in the dock were it not for two factors," he said.

The first was the ‘assiduous detective work’ of Det Con Rachel Sissons, who suspected Hallam of lying before she gave video-taped evidence.

The second was Hallam's own attempts to ‘embroil friends in her lies’.

She tried to ‘besmirch’ her ex’s reputation with Facebook messages claiming he was ‘a thief, had raped her, and was generally a bad man’.

But a friend pointed out bruises sustained during the ‘rape’ were caused by a medical condition.

And mobile phone messages she sent to her ex-partner showed what really happened.

In a statement, Hallam’s ex-husband said the impact of her accusations had been ‘dreadful’ and he became paranoid people thought he was a sex offender.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that Hallam, of Oakfield Lane, Warsop, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice between June 2019 and February 2020 – despite maintaining her version of events.

Digby Johnson, mitigating, said Hallam had no previous convictions and is the sole carer for her disabled daughter.

"In her mind they were going to spend the rest of their lives together,” he said, adding she found the ‘ongoing contact’ with him ‘confusing’.

She was so inept in what she sought to do, he said, Hallam’s friend made a statement telling police ‘they were about to be lied to’.

Hallam was ‘still in a maelstrom of lies and deceit’, and is ‘sometimes barely keeping things together’.

"It's clear that her obsession with him is certainly something that festers within her," Mr Johnson added.

“She feels she was used. She has responded in a criminal way. She bitterly regrets the effect this will have on her daughter.”

On Thursday, Judge Stuart Rafferty QC commended Det Con Sissons for her ‘indefatigable pursuit of the truth’.

He told Hallam: “You had every opportunity to say either, ‘I have made a mistake’, or ‘actually it didn't happen’.

"Even now you steadfastly refuse to do it. Why? Undoubtedly the answer lies within the psychological report.

"You need to feel loved because of things that may or may not have happened in your past.”

The judge said he would have had more sympathy if Hallam sought help, but observed her ‘rigidity of thinking’ is likely to be ‘untreatable’.

“You were prepared to cause other people to commit other criminal offences to support you,” he said.

He sentenced Hallam to 32 months in prison and imposed a restraining order, banning her from contacting her victim.

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