Jimmy Choo boss’s ex cleared of hacking plot

AMERICAN oil and banking heir Matthew Mellon yesterday expressed his relief after he was cleared of illegally being involved with a private detective agency which tried to hack into his ex-wife’s emails.

The 43-year-old multi-millionaire, who faced almost certain jail had the verdict gone against him, bowed his head as he learned his nightmare was finally at an end in London’s Southwark Crown Court.

His former wife Tamara, the Jimmy Choo shoe empress, said she was delighted at the verdict too.

Mr Mellon did not give evidence but relied instead on a leading barrister and two prosecution witnesses to tell the court he was too absent-minded to be guilty.

Defence QC Nicholas Purnell insisted that even without Mr Mellon’s woefully poor attention span, there was no way he could have known Active Investigation Services (AIS) would break the law.

He said his client paid AIS £12,000 to check whether Ms Mellon was concealing financial information dur-ing their “acrimonious” divorce, only to be “duped and gulled” in return.

The two-month trial of Mr Mellon, from Belgravia, central London, who is heir to a £4 billion American oil and banking dynasty, was memorable for one of the friendliest and most helpful courtroom character assassinations on record.

His ex-wife portrayed the former cocaine addict as a loving but bumbling incompetent. She said Mr Mellon “missed planes like other people missed buses”, never had a job, and could not manage bills.

Her disclosures were backed by psychologist Craig McNulty, a Crown witness, who consigned her ex-husband’s poor concentration to the bottom 11% of the population.

The jury’s unanimous not guilty verdict on a single count of unlawfully conspiring to cause unauthorised modification of computer material between July 1, 2004 and February 4, 2005 followed five days of deliberations. It was the last of 16 verdicts involving Mr Mellon and four other men. Two of his co-defendants were convicted.

One was ex-policeman Scott Gelsthorpe, 32, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, who helped run AIS.

He was convicted of two conspiracy counts involving the unauthorised modification charge, and one of conspiring to unlawfully intercept computer material.

Also found guilty was David Carroll, 58, of Highgate, north London, who helped run the agency. He said he did not think he was doing anything unlawful.

He was found guilty on six conspiracy counts, three involving interception and the others modification.

AIS chief Jeremy Young, another ex-Met officer, who used long-term sick leave to run AIS, is due to be dealt with this autumn, as are Mr Gelsthorpe and Mr Carroll.

Mr Young, 38, from Ilford, Essex, admitted to a total of 15 conspiracy charges before the trial.