Quotes of the week
SUNDAY MIRROR
new house. Stephen says he met Giles a handful of times and described him as a “lovely, humble” man who was unaware of Putman’s past as a sex offender.
He also told how Putman called him ahead of the Lottery win being exposed.
Stephen went on: “It was 2012. He rang and said ‘It’s going to come out, you’re going to laugh’. Since then all sorts of people have come out of the woodwork wanting to be his friends. The same year he bought eight Suzuki Swifts and handed them to pals.
“I feel like we’ve been used and abused. He wrapped himself around us and our family. I’ve known him since I was 11 and he still lied to me.”
Stephen and grocer’s son Putman went to the Grange Park School in Bushey, Herts, and grew up on The Harebreaks estate in north Watford. They drifted apart but were reunited in 1997 after a chance meeting with a family friend.
Putman had just been released for the 1991 rape of a 17-year-old. He broke into her home, flicked cigarette ash at her, then beat and raped her. She branded Putman a “brazen psychopath” and said she was punched so hard she thought her head would “cave in”.
But Stephen said Putman told him he was only convicted because an ex-partner had made up lies about him in court.
He said: “He admitted he’d been inside for rape, but he lied about what happened and I believed him. If we had known the truth we wouldn’t have had him around us. I’ve a tight-knit group of friends who are staunch people, I introduced him into that circle and we introduced him to our family.”
They enjoyed family barbecues, trips to Great Yarmouth and go-karting sessions, usually paid for by Stephen.
Putman now lives in the home in Kings Langley, Herts, that once belonged to his friend Graham Stevens, who died in 2006.
Putman later struck up a romance with Graham’s wife Lita, 53, and they live together in the property, bought for £466,000 in 2011. Hertfordshire Police said in December that allegations of a lottery fraud were investigated “by our specialist cyber and financial investigation unit working with the Gambling Commission”.
A statement added: “A man was arrested on suspicion of fraud. Following a thorough investigation he was released with no further action to be taken against him.”
It followed a probe by the Gambling Commission, which was also concluded in December. Its report stated: “The investigation found that, whilst it could not be certain a fraud had taken place, it was more likely than not that a fraudulent prize claim had been made and paid out.”
Yesterday the Daily Mirror revealed it had obtained a copy of the report but 195 of the 270 pages were blacked out either in part or full. Another 79 pages had been removed from the dossier entirely.
A spokeswoman for Camelot said they were “simply not in a position to comment” because the case “could well be subject to further police action”.
I’m not ranting or raving – I’m having a good time