VICTIM SPEAKS OUT

Coercive ex drove my kids out of my home and conned me out of £40,000

- BY MARCELLO MEGA

WHEN Lisa Lailey met James Starr as they walked their dogs, it started an appallingly abusive relationship that nearly destroyed her.

Starr posed as an ex-US Marine but was actually a twisted, controlling fanta-sist who would cheat her out of £40,000, plunge her into £20,000 debt and drive away her teenage kids. Artist Lisa, 51, who was physically and sexually abused and isolated by the conman, feared for her life. Last week Starr was jailed for two years by Taunton Crown Court in Somerset after pleading guilty to coercive control and fraud.

Lisa, of Yeovil, Somerset, who has battled post-traumatic stress, could have hid away after the verdict but instead is speaking out about coercive control to warn other women about Starr.

For five years he used Lisa to pay fake expenses, vowing to pay her back when he started his bogus top job. In 2018, Starr moved in and began his campaign of abuse to break Lisa's will.

He subjected her to sex up to eight times a day, not caring inter- course aggravated her back pain. His apparently insatiable appetite was fuelled by erectile dysfunction pills she later found in a drawer.

BRUTAL

He would keep her up all night, sitting on a hard chair shouting in her face so she obeyed his every demand. A brutal and inhumane ordeal he also forced on her teenage daughter.

Lisa said: "When Jim shouted, I feared for my safety. I didn't think he would just hurt me. He was so unhinged I thought he'd kill me.

"After being kept up all night, I'd agree to anything he said. He would then take me upstairs to the bedroom and expect intercourse. If I showed any reluctance, he would get angry again."