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Judge 'urged lover to run away' | Judge 'urged lover to run away' |
(about 1 hour later) | |
A judge urged his Brazilian lover to flee the country after she was arrested for allegedly blackmailing him, the Old Bailey has heard. | |
Cleaner Roselane Driza, 37 told the court she would not leave because she would be "committing a crime" by breaching bail conditions. | |
Ms Driza denies stealing videos and threatening the two immigration judges, for employing her illegally. | |
She has admitted asking the female judge for £20,000, for compensation. | |
After she was arrested and bailed for blackmail charges, she contacted one judge, identified in court only as Judge I, with whom she had been living. | |
'I was innocent' | 'I was innocent' |
She began living with him after being sacked as a cleaner by another judge, a woman known as Judge J. | |
The judges were former lovers and the court heard an "emotional triangle" began to form between the three parties. | |
Ms Driza said: "I was innocent and I told him if I had to go down then I would go down innocent. By running away I would be agreeing I was guilty. I had not done anything." | |
One video showed the Judge J allegedly snorting cocaine, while another is said to have showed Judge I in bed with another woman. | |
Ms Driza told the court she had destroyed a video showing Judge J taking cocaine and the judges in bed together, because she wanted to protect Judge I. | |
"It would damage him," she said. | |
You were obsessed with getting back at J Prosecutor David Markham | |
She denied threatening to show the tape to Judge J, and told the court she felt Judge I was being pressured by his former lover. | She denied threatening to show the tape to Judge J, and told the court she felt Judge I was being pressured by his former lover. |
Prosecutor David Markham suggested Ms Driza had pursued a revenge campaign against Judge J and that money was a priority. | |
"You were obsessed with getting back at J," he told her. | |
'Pressure on me' | |
But the Brazilian denied this, saying: "She has called me all these names." | |
Ms Driza said she would not have first written to J asking for an explanation if she was simply interested in money. | |
Mr Markham asked Ms Driza if she knew that by mid-2005 Judge J was ill and off work. | |
She responded: "I had problems and had no-one to help me at all. I would get up and cry, go to work and cry... finish and cry." | |
She denied putting pressure on Judge J, saying: "If there was pressure, it was on me. I am here in this court. I am not British. I have nothing to answer for. The world may think I am guilty. I have nothing to hide and God knows I am not guilty." | |
The trial continues. | The trial continues. |