A HANDYMAN has been cleared of assaulting a 73-year-old woman and holding her as a prisoner in her own home.

Henry Heath was found not guilty of controlling and coercive behaviour after telling a jury that his former lover Anne-Marie Halford had injured herself gardening.

He also denied holding the frail arthritis sufferer against her will or charging her £10 for a glass of water and £20 to take her to the bathroom.

He said she could have left or asked for help at any time and that she transferred £500 into his PayPal account as advance wages for maintenance work he was carrying out at the house.

Heath, who used his middle name Paul, provided a receipt for posting a parcel at a post office near Newton Abbot on one of the days when he was supposed to have been holding her prisoner.

He said she had made up the allegations because she wanted to get him out of her life.

He was found not guilty after his defence barrister pointed out a raft of inconsistencies in Mrs Halford’s evidence, including the date on which she contacted her doctor and what she said to neighbours.

Heath, aged 66, of Abbey Road, Torquay, denies controlling and coercive behaviour. He was found not guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court in less than three hours.

During a five-day trial, the jury heard radically different versions of events from Mrs Halford and Heath.

She said they had been in a relationship 15 years ago while living in France and she had offered him a roof and free board and lodging after he turned up at her home in Abbotskerswell homeless and hungry.

She said she paid him £10 an hour to do building jobs around the house but that he became angry and ‘lost it’ when he learned she paid her gardener £15 an hour.

She said he attacked her in June 2019 at a time when her husband David was seriously ill with terminal dementia in a care home. She said he kicked her, hit her with one of her crutches, trapped her in a chair and deliberately trod on her toes.

She alleged he had effectively held her prisoner from a Wednesday morning until she was rescued by her daughter on the Friday, preventing her from using the phone.

Mrs Halford said she was only allowed out to visit her husband on the Thursday but that Heath told her he would kill her dog if she raised the alarm. Her husband and dog have both died since 2019.

Heath told the jury they had resumed a full romantic relationship when he moved into her house but there were strains because she considered herself to be from high society.

He said he called her Countess and she claimed to have danced with Prince Charles and to be one of the ‘yachtie’ set. She had once referred to him as a ‘scruffy little builder’.

He said she suffered the bruises on her legs which were seen by police by falling over while gardening. He said the reddening of her feet and ankles was caused by standing up for too long in the garden and cuts on her arms came from rose bushes.

He denied charging her for glasses or water or taking her to the lavatory and said she had been free to leave at any time.