Nadine Milroy-Sloan, 29, was convicted of two counts of perverting the course of justice at the end of a six-week trial into the sex allegations, which she was found to have concocted to make money.

Mr and Mrs Hamilton were arrested after Milroy-Sloan complained to police in May 2001 that they and Barry Lehaney, an arthritic pensioner, had subjected her to a serious sexual assault at a flat in Ilford, Essex.

Milroy-Sloan, who had a criminal record, later admitted that she had never met the Hamiltons. The couple were having dinner with friends on the night in question. Speaking from her Cheshire home after the verdict, Mrs Hamilton said that questions remained unanswered as to how such a “grotesque charade” could ever have been taken seriously by the police.

“I’m relieved,” she said. “We have known we were right from the outset and that what she said about us was a pack of lies. I’m delighted at last that justice has been done.

“I don’t have any feelings about Miss Milroy-Sloan. I have never met her. I don’t know whether and in what combination she is mad, bad and dangerous to know. She’s certainly a bit of all three.”

The Hamiltons said that they had not decided whether to pursue legal action.

Mr Hamilton called on the Government to change the law so that those accused of rape were given anonymity.

Judge Simon Smith granted Milroy-Sloan conditional bail to appear at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on June 13, but said that she could expect a substantial custodial sentence. Milroy-Sloan hugged her third husband as she was released from the dock.

The judge, who adjourned sentence for psychiatric reports, told her that bail was on condition that she stayed at her home and did not contact media organisations or prosecution witnesses. The jury had been told that Milroy-Sloan, of Grimsby, went to the publicist Max Clifford with a story about the Hamiltons being involved in a vice ring and tax scam. Mr Clifford told her she could make £100,000 if she could substantiate the claims. A week later she reported the rape allegations to police.

Mr Lehaney, 62, was also arrested after Milroy-Sloan made her allegations, but was not charged. He said yesterday: “I was totally innocent. This woman has turned me into a virtual recluse.”

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