'Spy' conman jailed for life

A judge imposed a life sentence on a con man known as "The Puppetmaster" who was convicted of bilking and humiliating a series of victims with his lies about being a British spy.

Robert Hendy-Freegard, 34, was convicted in June of two counts of kidnap, 10 charges of theft and eight counts of deception. He was cleared of two counts of kidnap, one of theft and one of making a threat to kill.

During a nine month trial prosecutors said Hendy-Freegard spent 10 years callously commandeering the lives of nine people by persuading them their lives were under threat by IRA killers and the Polish Mafia.

Judge Deva Pillay described Hendy-Freegard as "an egotistical and opinionated confidence trickster who has shown not a shred of remorse nor compassion for the degradation and suffering to which your victims were subjected."

Hendy-Freegard was convicted of kidnapping two university students, John Atkinson and Sarah Smith.

"John Atkinson and Sarah Smith have each told this court of how they had to wait for hours and hours upon street corners awaiting your arrival, of humiliating and degrading rules which they were subjected to when they lived in your house in Sheffield, of their personal and private correspondence being intercepted or being taken from them by you, of being prevented from having any contact with their families save when instructed to do by you, of being in employment and, despite their deprived conditions, of having to hand over their income to you, of having to wait around in hotels or airports or wandering the streets of our cities, or having to sleep rough on park benches for extended periods of time," the judge said.

"They told this court of, at times, being driven to such despair that John Atkinson certainly even contemplated suicide, of having obtained very substantial sums of money from their families, all of which were handed over to you in cash ostensibly to be placed in a secure account and to their credit."

REACTION
Accused passive as statements read out

Hendy-Freegard showed no reaction to the judge's statement.

Five of his victims were women. He seduced every one and got engaged to most of them.

They included a lawyer, a psychologist, a company director and a recently married personal assistant who left her husband for Hendy-Freegard and ended up sleeping on park benches.

Hendy-Freegard was convicted of stealing £600,000 (Dh4.1 million).

Witnesses at his trial told of carrying out bizarre "missions" across Britain, and of living in fear from his explosive temper and claims that assassins were stalking their every move.