The cougar from hell
She targeted married men in uniform, slept with them, then threatened to tell their wives
A STALKER with a passion for men in uniform conducted a string of affairs through online dating websites – then threatened to tell her lovers’ wives or accuse them of rape or child abuse.
Married Sarah Lewis, 49, targeted soldiers and a fireman using the sites, including at least one catering for people seeking extra-marital liaisons.
A court heard the grandmother left one victim suicidal and destroyed at least two marriages after arranging to meet five men in hotels in the Midlands.
Prosecutor Michael Aspinall said Lewis told the 12-year-old daughter of another victim via text message that her father was a sex pest. She also falsely claimed to have become pregnant after one sex session, and lied that another man had given her a sexually transmitted disease.
The firefighter she slept with was forced to leave his dream job after she threatened to expose his infidelity to his boss.
Mother-of-two Lewis, who used a variety of aliases, was handed a suspended sentence after admitting five counts of harassment by stalking and one of disclosing private sexual photographs or ‘revenge porn’.
Judge Nicholas Cartwright was told Lewis, who had two previous convictions for harassment going back more than a decade, had targeted the men because she ‘wanted to be loved’ and had ‘low self-esteem’.
Lewis preyed on her victims using a string of websites, including the ‘cougar’ section of dating site Plenty of Fish and Saucydating.com, which bills itself as a ‘leading online adult sex dating website’, connecting ‘people seeking sex, without the complication of a long- term relationship’.
Mr Aspinall told the court Lewis contacted the first man via one of the dating sites and met him for sex in a hotel in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
But last July she threatened to tell his wife about the affair. Mr Aspinall said the victim was ‘pressurised’ to meet Lewis at a hotel in Lichfield, Staffordshire, last July, but the next morning he found her taking photos of his car and threatening to play her ‘ace card’.
The man’s 12-year-old daughter later found messages from Lewis on his mobile phone and she told the defendant to stay away from her father. But Lewis replied, saying ‘your dad is a sex pest’, Worcester Crown Court heard.
Mr Aspinall said the man was left so troubled that he ‘contemplated suicide by walking on to some train tracks’.
The following month, Lewis sent intimate pictures of the man to his wife and set up an online profile using the same images, accusing him of being a rapist.
Between December and January this year, she harassed another married man, branding him a ‘disgusting father’ and threatening to disclose intimate details about him.
Also in December, she had sex with another man, then threatened to cry rape if he left her.
In January, under the name of Scarlet, she threatened to share intimate photos of a fireman in his uniform with his boss – before falsely claiming he had touched her daughter’s bottom, even though the firefighter never met the child.
Lewis contacted a fifth victim’s wife, claiming the husband had made her pregnant and also given her a sexually transmitted disease, as well as saying she wanted his pension.
She was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years, and given a two-year mental health treatment order.
Judge Cartwright told her: ‘ Your behaviour could be described as unpleasant, predatory and threatening.’
He also imposed a ten-year restraining order in relation to the victims, their wives and the first man’s 12-year-old child.
Yesterday Lewis said the offences took place while she was on a ‘break’ from husband Andrew, a 56-year-old doctor – but added that the couple were ‘stronger than ever’. Speaking from the couple’s £ 250,000 detached home in Warndon Villages, Worcester, she added: ‘They (the five men) all said they were single’, and described herself as a ‘normal housewife’.
A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I think he (Andrew) must be the most forgiving husband in Britain but fair play, if sleeping with lots of men saved their marriage then good luck to them.’
‘Contemplated suicide’