Evening Standard/London

A secretary demanded £200,000 from her ex-boss to drop a false rape claim made after he ended their affair.
Dilrushi Mendis, 40, cheated on her husband with the married businessman until he sacked and dumped her.
But the mother-of-one refused to accept the relationship was over and launched a campaign against him, sending “revenge porn” to his relatives and turning up outside his home.
Prosecuting barrister Adam King told Blackfriars crown court: “They met in 2008 when she began working for him. They were both married, but an on-off sexual relationship began and he helped her financially.”
But in September 2013 Mendis’s boss learned her husband was moving to the UK and ended the relationship and her employment, the court heard.
King said: “She did not take it well and pestered him with phone calls  and he felt she had somehow gained access to his e-mail account, because she knew about his restaurant plans one Valentine’s.
“Later that evening in February 2014 she telephoned him, when he was at home with his family, saying she was outside, and demanded to be seen.
“He met her around the corner and agreed to see her the next day, but broke the date and Mendis phoned him hundreds of times.
“She sent him a text which read, ‘If you do not come and see me I’ll do something terrible to you.’ She asked him — knowing he was a wealthy man — for £40,000 to £50,000 to open a hair salon.”
Around this time she reported him to the police, claiming he struck her. “She admitted to him she lied to the police,” King said.
On the evening of March 2 last year she invited him to stay over. He arrived with a friend and still maintains they slept in a separate room.
Mendis, however, told police the men arrived with alcohol and she had two or three drinks before her  former boss entered her room and raped her.
He was in his native Sri Lanka when the complaint was made and the friend acted as a go-between, saying Mendis would drop the case for £200,000.
The man did not pay and was arrested on his return to Britain in June last year. He denied the rape claim and spent three months on bail before learning there would be no charge.
Mendis, of Cricklewood, admitted blackmail. The prosecution dropped a charge of perverting the course of justice.
Defending, Nerida Harford-Bell said: “She was not paid during her employment by this wealthy and successful businessman and was on benefits.
“He did lead her to believe he would leave his wife and then live with her in Sri Lanka. That was a foolish dream.”
On Friday Mendis received eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete 80 hours community service.
Sentencing, Judge Peter Clarke said: “You have used the criminal justice system to attempt to get a large sum of money from your ex-lover.
“There were matters where you were wronged and part of your motive was impure, it was revenge on a man you felt had betrayed you.”