Blackmailing cleaner in love tangle with judges

Roselane Driza

LONDON - Even the more outrageous television law dramas have never featured a storyline like the one heard at the Old Bailey in London over the last week.

Two UK immigration judges and their illegal immigrant cleaner became involved in a love triangle that ended in allegations of blackmail, drug taking, sex videos, assassination allegations - and broken china.

Yesterday the soap opera of Court 13 came to a dramatic climax when Roselane Driza was convicted of theft and of blackmailing a female judge.

Driza was cleared of a second count relating to another judge, Mohammed Ilyas Khan, with whom both she and her female victim had been lovers.

The 37-year-old Brazilian, was also convicted of stealing two home-made sex videos from Mr Khan, one of which purported to show the female judge snorting cocaine.

The two judges, who work for the asylum and immigration tribunal, now face potential disciplinary action over the fact that they both employed Driza as a cleaner when she was an illegal immigrant.

Blackmail remains an unusual charge in the courts and the week long trial at the Old Bailey has kept the media - as well as the jurors - gripped.

Neither of the judges could be named during the proceedings because of laws relating to the protection of blackmail victims, but the rule banning publication of Mr Khan's name was lifted after Driza was cleared of the charge relating to him.

Mr Khan, 60, and the female judge, known only as Mrs J, had been lovers and lived together for five years until 2000, but remained friends after the end of their relationship.

Mrs J and Mr Khan both employed Driza as a cleaner but denied knowing that she had overstayed her tourist and student visas and was an illegal immigrant - although she said they were both aware of her status.

When Mrs J sacked Driza in 2004, for interfering in her personal life and breaking china, Mr Khan also severed her employment in support of his friend.

But within weeks of those events, Mr Khan and Driza had embarked on a sexual relationship and the cleaner moved in to the judge's flat in London.

Passions escalated during December 2004.

Mr Khan refused to spend Christmas Day with Driza's family and she later discovered he had spent it with Mrs J, claiming he had to because she was "depressive".

He then spent Boxing Day with Driza at his flat, but Mrs J turned up, refused to leave and became furious when she discovered the affair between her friend and the erstwhile cleaner.

Mr Khan then ended the relationship in deference to Mrs J's demands, but admitted in court that he did continue sleeping with Driza.

Driza then became determined to wreak revenge on Mrs J for triggering both the end of her job and her relationship.

She found two home-made videos in Mr Khan's flat, one of him and Mrs J having sex and which purported to show the female judge snorting cocaine.

The second video showed Mr Khan having sex with another blonde woman.

Driza took the videos and threatened to sell her story to tabloid newspapers unless the judges paid her £20,000.

She also told them that she would write to their "boss" - the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, about the sexual shenanigans and her illegal immigrant status.

Mr Khan admitted to the court that he became "petrified" by the threats and claimed Driza had refused to move out of his flat.

In October 2005, the two judges went to the police and Driza was arrested, David Markham, prosecuting, told the court: "She saw an opportunity to make money by threatening two people who were in sensitive positions - threatening them about their private lives.

"It needs little emphasis that blackmail develops and thrives where there is human vulnerability and weakness.

"It does not flourish among angels and saints; it takes root where flesh and blood people - including judges - decidedly fall from grace and err."

During the trial, emails to Driza from the Mr Khan were read out in which he called her "real chilli hot stuff" and told her he loved her.

Driza, meanwhile, claimed her had used her for sex while Mrs J had treated her like "an animal".

She told the court that she was even concerned that the female judge might hire hit men to kill her.

The cleaner claimed that she had never blackmailed the judges and that Mr Khan had suggested the figure of £20,000 as compensation for the damage she had suffered mentally and financially.

She said she had kept the videos because she wanted an apology and explanation from Mrs J.

Driza insisted: "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."

Sentencing was deferred yesterday but Driza was warned that she faces a "substantial" prison sentence and deportation.

The two judges may also face an investigation into their parts in the affair.

A spokesman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs said: "The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice strongly believe that the public must have confidence in judges and take any allegations against them very seriously.

"Following allegations made in the trial of Roselane Driza they are now considering whether to hold a disciplinary investigation into the conduct of the two judges involved."

- INDEPENDENT