Fatal Attraction of an affair that turned sour
A businessman was subject to a campaign of harassment by his tycoon lover that would not have been out of place in the film Fatal Attraction. After their affair came to an end, Yvonne Graham falsely accused Andrew Nelson of being a paedophile and wrote intimidating letters to his elderly mother, his neighbours, and even his golf club. Graham was jailed for 18 months at Hull Crown Court after pleading guilty to harassment.
‘I had to knock on people’s doors, asking if they had received letters. I cannot put into words how difficult that was’
WHEN businessman Andrew Nelson first met care home tycoon Yvonne Graham, he could not have envisaged their relationship would come to resemble the plot of the Hollywood thriller Fatal Attraction.
The pair had been introduced in 2011 through a mutual business contact and went on to begin an affair behind the back of Mr Nelson’s wife, Lorraine.
But when the relationship turned sour, Graham launched an obsessive 16-month campaign of harassment against her lover, which included falsely exposing Mr Nelson as a paedophile and writing intimidating g letters about him to his elderly derly mother, East Yorkshire neighbours, urs, his golf club and even his dentist.
Some claimed he was a thief, while others threatened to burn n down his business and kill him.
Graham, who runs eightt care homes with a turnover of £2.2 million, was jailed for 18 months at Hull Crown Court after pleading guiltyty to a single charge of harassment.
She began her campaign ign by writing letters and text messages to Mr Nelson’s wife, e, accusing him of several affairs, airs, in a bizarre attempt to end the couple’s marriage.
When that failed Gra- aham, who is married with h two daughters aged 11 and 17, began writing to Mr Nelson’s son, elderly y mother, neighbours, den- - tist, estate agent, business s associates, school and d Hornsea Golf Club.
One threatened to burnurn down his successful timber business, stating: “You would not want a fire to start, would you? Tick Tock.”
Graham, 45, then began to put up a series of laminated posters around Hornsea, including during a seaside carnival, falsely claiming Mr Nelson was a paedophile in a continued attempt to drive his 52-year-old wife away from her husband.
One poster displayed a picture of him, with the message: “He’s a paedophile. Watch it if you see him near your kids!” A second showed him and a picture of a convicted Hornsea paedophile side by side. It said: “What have these two dirty paedophiles got in common? One is locked up; the other is getting away withwi it.”
Mr Nelson, 55,5 said the incident will affect him and his wife for the rest of their lives. “I hadha to knock on people’s doors asking if they had received letters,” he said. “I“cannot put into words how difficult th that was. I contemplated taking my own life. We lived like hermits. I have onlyonl just got back to playing golf – and that is early in the morning.” Mrs Nelson added: “I am an extre extremely private person. This has devastated our lives lives. I used to be able to hold my head up high, but I feel like a criminal. I hope even eventually to be able to mov move away, but cannot becaus cause of elderly relatives.”
MrM Nelson went to the polic police, but was told there was insufficient evidence to pursuepursu a case against Graham, whose Fox Glove Care firm e employs 140 people.
He launched a private prosecution against his former lover, at a cost of £5,000, until the Crown Prosecution Service eventually agreed to pursue the case in 2014.
In a crucial breakthrough one of Graham’s employees confessed to writing one of the poison pen letters.
Sentencing Graham, Recorder Simon Jackson QC told her: “You embarked on an appalling campaign of harassment that made the life of the complainant and his family utterly miserable. There seemed no limit to the steps you would take to take some sort of perverse revenge on this man. It was an attempt to destabilise his family, in the hope that he would leave his wife. It is difficult to imagine a more damaging campaign of harassment carried out over an extended period. At one point you put up posters calling him a paedophile. It was monstrous.”
Mr Nelson and his family also won an indefinite restraining order against Graham. She was also ordered to pay Mr Nelson’s £5,000 legal costs.