Woman's sympathy for conman

A victim of the conman who made £1million spinning lies about being an MI5 spy spoke for the first time today about how she was duped.

Chiswick solicitor Caroline Cowper told how Robert Hendy-Freegard fleeced her out of £50,000.

Ms Cowper, 38, was the last of seven women - the others included a lawyer, a psychologist, a company director and a civil servant - who fell for the former car salesman's lie that he was an undercover agent on the run from the IRA and the Mafia, and that their lives were at risk because they knew him.

Ms Cowper, who met him while buying a car, told Channel 4 News: " I was bored with my life and life with Robert was never boring.

Basically, it was one big adventure and I just got sucked into it." Hendy-Freegard's victims gave him their money for "safe-keeping", cut ties with their families and lived, impoverished, in hiding for up to 10 years while he spent their cash on holidays and fast cars.

He is facing a life sentence after being found guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court yesterday of 20 charges including kidnap, theft and fraud. Ms Cowper said that at first, he had seemed the perfect gentleman. He eventually proposed with a ?7,000 engagement ring and they took holidays in Brazil and Madeira.

Much later she realised he had financed the whole romance by raiding her savings account. He then backed out of his promise to marry her and she demanded her money back. When he refused, she went to police.

They would not take her claim seriously at first, she said. "But there came a time when they did because I wasn't going to let it drop. I know I've been painted as a woman with vendetta syndrome. I don't have a vendetta, I feel very sorry for Robert, he obviously has major issues."

Hendy-Freegard, 34, forced some victims to live in bedsits or even on park benches. They handed him their wages, life savings and hundreds of thousands of pounds from wealthy parents.

Elizabeth Richardson told how she lived in poverty for 17 months, existing on a Mars bar a week. Maria Hendy bore Hendy-Freegard two daughters.

The only male victim, John Atkinson, was regularly beaten by Hendy-Freegard to "toughen him up" for a role as his assistant in the secret service.

Ms Cowper said the other victims "should all feel equally vindicated today. I know it must have been dreadfully traumatic for them to come back to court, to relive it - in some cases experiences they've had over 10 years.

"I am brimming with admiration for them."