294. Painting the lilly

That's what any comment on this story would be.  Here's the Guardian:

A Brazilian cleaner accused of blackmailing a female judge and stealing two sex videos from a male judge walked free from court today, after prosecutors announced they were dropping the case.

"Justice has been done. I am very happy and very proud of God," Roselane Driza said as she left the Old Bailey.

In October, 37-year-old Ms Driza was jailed for 33 months for stealing the explicit videos from her then lover, judge Mohammed Ilyas Khan, and for blackmailing another full time immigration judge, a woman, for £20,000.

The court heard the videos showed Mr Khan having sex with two women, one of them alleged to be the female judge, identified only as Judge J.

Ms Driza was cleared of blackmailing 61-year-old Mr Khan, with whom she was living with until her arrest.

In February, the appeal court quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial on the grounds of fresh evidence, details of which were not allowed to be reported.

The Telegraph adds an interesting detail about the judge's misconception concerning the provenance of the chile - not a noted ingredient in Brazilian food - and, oh, yeah, adds an interesting detail about the woman's former husband:

Miss Driza had lived with Judge Khan before she was arrested and he had sent her text messages and emails in which he described her as "real chilli hot stuff".

Judge Khan was having an affair with a woman judge, who can only be referred to as Judge J, when he began having sex with Miss Driza, who cleaned for them both.

When they sacked her, she was claimed to have threatened to report the judges to the Lord Chancellor unless she was given £20,000 compensation.

Miss Driza, from South Norwood, south London, who was married to a serial killer, was alleged to have taken two videotapes, one of Judge Khan having sex with Judge J and the other showing him with another woman.

She knows how to pick 'em, doesn't she?

The prosecution declined to go forward with the case because the two judges wanted to spend more time with their - No, wait, it was because they had both sadly fallen ill.  Well, it could be true - they might well have been exhausted by what Ms. Driza described as their "drug- and sex-fuelled private lives."   (Here's a picture of Judge Khan - he'd look good in a wig, wouldn't he? - and here's the website of his immigration court.)

The BBC further explained what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to hire servants on the fiddle and then have sex with them:

[O]n appeal she was cleared of blackmailing 61-year-old Judge Khan, with whom she had an affair and had been living with until her arrest.

The exact grounds for appeal cannot be reported except that it was on the basis of new evidence.

Both judges had been employing Driza illegally.