A MAN who lied to police investigating allegations of stalking has denied he was motivated by jealousy of his former gay lover’s mistress.

Veronica Tann, 50, is accused of sending emails and packages and making upsetting phone calls to Debra Lendrum in 2012 and 2013 regarding the affair Debra’s husband John was having with Tann.

Tann also faces a charge of perverting the course of justice after Steve Lansley, another lover of John Lendrum, admitted lying to police investigating the allegations against Tann.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, Southampton Crown Court heard that John Lendrum came clean about cheating on his wife with fellow driving instructor Tann.

And Mr Lansley, who is also trained in martial arts, told the jury he met Mr Meldrum on a cottaging website and began a brief sexual relationship with him before the pair began working together as driving instructors.

When police began attempting to trace the messages sent to Debra Lendrum – one of which included naked pictures of her husband – they interviewed Mr Lansley, who said he had received worrying phone calls and did not mention his sexual relationship with Mr Lendrum.

Mr Lansley said Tann had put him up to lying about the phone calls but Jodie Mittell, defending Tann, accused him of misleading the jury.

She said: “You didn’t tell the police that you had met him on a cottaging website – that wasn’t the complete truth, was it?

“The reality is that you would protect John Lendrum at all costs because you fell for him and you wanted the relationship to continue, didn’t you?

“You were jealous of the time he spent with these women and that he would not spend as much time with you.

At one point Judge Peter Ralls QC intervened and said to Mr Lansley: “You have not told the truth to police – I would be grateful if you would tell the truth now.”

But Mr Lansley said: “I didn’t want his marriage wrecked the way mine was.

“I’m not lying now. I didn’t want to harm his wife.”

Tann, of Sengana Close, Botley, denies charges of stalking and perverting the course of justice by making someone give a false statement to police.

Proceeding.