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A widow who falsely claimed that a neighbour pointed a shotgun at her has walked free from court.

Lyn Fisk, 58, told police that neighbour Andrew Thorne had put the gun to her and said 'If you don't leave you're going to die'.

But she was convicted of perverting the court of justice by a jury at Exeter Crown Court.

During a sentencing hearing on Friday, Judge Timothy Rose handed Fisk a suspended sentence saying that he feared for her wellbeing if she was sent to jail.

Fisk called 999 in an emotional state saying Mr Thorne, a farmer, had pointed the gun at her and said 'If you don't leave you're going to die'.

But after seeing CCTV of the alleged confrontation the jury decided she had lied.

Armed police were called to Crabdown Farm, Ashreigney, on September 9 and arrested Mr Thorne.

He was held in police custody overnight and released after 16 hours.

The court heard how Fisk had suffered from post traumatic stress disorder since the death of her RAF pilot husband.

He died the day after the couple had exchanged on their £800k 'dream home' in the village near Chumleigh.

Fisk has since put her house on the market and plans to move to another part of the country following the long-running dispute with Mr Thorne.

(Image: Google)

In mitigation, Miss Emily Pitts told the court how Fisk had planted a 1,000 tree woodland in memory of her husband but would now have to give that up by selling her property.

Judge Rose said: "The jury saw through your lies and quite properly convicted you for the offence in question.

"You put Andrew Thorne very much in harms way that day.

"Parlty as you caused him to lose his liberty and partly because he was confronted by armed police officers.

"As a point of general principle there was a risk that if things did not play out the way they did when armed officers turned up this could have been very different to what happened.

"It seems to me that you have carried on insisting that you are telling the truth over an incident that demonstrably didn't happen.

"You had no remorse for the situation.

"But I have concerns about your safety in a custodial setting and have reservations about what would happen to your mental health and physical security."

Fisk was also ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and pay £3,000 in compensation to Mr Thorne.

She must also pay court costs totalling £1,500 and a victim surcharge of £150.