Jailed, spurned mistress who branded lover a paedophile in vile poster campaign
‘Taking a sort of perverse revenge’
A MISTRESS made posters claiming her lover was a paedophile, sent threatening letters to his wife and wrote to his golf club after he refused to end his marriage.
Yvonne Graham, 45, hoped her 16-month campaign of harassment would force company boss Andrew Nelson, 55, to leave his wife and move in with her.
As their affair continued the married motherof-two wrote anonymous letters to Mr Nelson’s wife Lorraine, 52, which read ‘Where do you think he is when you are working? He is screwing that b **** ’ and ‘Let’s hope your kids don’t find out’.
When this did not work she sent letters to business associates, family – including his 21-year-old son and 85-year-old mother – neighbours, his children’s school and his golf club, where he had been a member for more than 40 years.
As a final move she pinned up laminated posters around his home town of Hornsea, East Yorkshire, accusing him of being a paedophile.
Mr Nelson said he had to live like a hermit and even considered suicide. Mrs Nelson said: ‘This has publicly devastated our lives.’
Jailing Graham for 18 months at Hull Crown Court, Recorder Simon Jackson, QC, said the ‘appalling and monstrous’ campaign of harassment made Mr Nelson’s life ‘utterly miserable’.
The Crown Prosecution Service had said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. It was only when Mr Nelson funded a £5,000 private prosecution that police and the CPS agreed to take the case.
Graham, the part-owner of Foxglove Care Homes, which has eight care homes around Hull and a £2million annual turnover, met Mr Nelson, the owner of a successful timber business, in 2011.
For a year Mrs Nelson knew nothing of the affair but both parties’ partners found out about the cheating in October 2012.
Graham, whose husband has since moved to Greece, insisted Mr Nelson told her he wanted to leave his wife to move in with her.
But even as the pair continued to meet, letters started arriving at the family’s £400,000 seven-bedroom mansion accusing Mr Nelson of multiple affairs.
Richard Thompson, prosecuting, said: ‘The correspondence was framed as if a third party were following the couple in their affair. It included statements like, “Where do you think he is, when you are working. He is screwing that b **** ”, “Let’s hope your kids don’t find out”, “He has been screwing that b **** and betraying you”.
‘She was laying false trails. Naming herself as the person he was seeing. On one letter she put a picture of his wife accusing him of fathering other children, including her own, and referring to him as a paedophile.’ Mr Thompson said the worst crime was the laminated posters of Mr Nelson showing a picture of him and the words: ‘He’s a paedophile. Watch it if you see him near your kids!’
A second poster showed Mr Nelson with a picture of a convicted Hornsea paedophile on it. It said: ‘What have these two dirty paedo- philes got in common. One is locked up, the other is getting away with it.’
The harassment escalated with death threats and a menacing note threatening an arson attack on his business. It said: ‘You would not want a fire to start, would you. Tick Tock.’ Mr Nelson took the threats so seriously that police installed a panic alarm.
The judge told Graham: ‘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.’
In a victim impact statement Mr Nelson said that for 18 months he and his wife stopped seeing friends. His wife added: ‘I used to be able to hold my head up high, but now I feel like a criminal.’