Elisa Bianco, 22, conned Sally Retallack, 49, into thinking she had only months to live as well as posing as fake lover on internet

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A student who manipulated the emotions of a female lecturer with “callous and cruel” lies including faking terminal cancer and posing as an internet love interest has been jailed for stalking and harassment.

Sally Retallack, 49, lost her marriage, home and job after Elisa Bianco duped her with false tales of illness and abuse, Truro crown court heard.

Bianco, 22, moved in with the lecturer after claiming she had been abused by her parents and had just three months to live with a malignant tumour.

Bianco was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on Friday after admitting stalking and causing serious harm or distress, with the judge describing her actions as the “most extraordinary case” he had dealt with in a long time.

Retallack, 49, was so concerned about Bianco that she gave up work and spent £2,000 on fulfilling Bianco’s bucket list – a wishlist of events and actions to complete before death.

Bianco was dropped off at hospital every day but would then sit in a cafe in her pyjamas and dress herself in fake bandages, the court heard. She became an “uninvited cuckoo” in the home and used mind games to drive a wedge between Retallack and her husband which led to them parting.

Bianco then set Retallack up with a “recently widowed” consultant physician called John who was in fact Bianco using a husky voice and a fake email address. Retallack and “John” became close and exchanged intimate emails but Bianco invented a cancer diagnosis for the internet lover and killed him off before they could meet, the court heard.

Handing down sentence, Judge Christopher Harvey Clark QC told her: “It is a strange but very disturbing case. It is the most extraordinary case I have had to deal with in a long time.



“You were like an uninvited cuckoo fledging in the nest of a willow warbler – an unexpected offspring demanding to receive constant attention.



“Most chilling was the callous and cruel deception to create a fictitious hospital consultant. You heartlessly manipulated Mrs Retallack’s deepest emotions. No sentence will compensate her.”



Bianco was 16 when she met Retallack and enrolled on a college course at St Austell College in Cornwall in 2009. Her course was taught by the health and social care tutor.



Retallack described herself as “an outgoing, positive career minded individual” but after a while prosecutor Philip Lee said: “She became increasingly demanding and Retallack is sure, looking back, that the defendant had, by then, began to target her as being a supporting person.”



Lee said the victim and her husband had become estranged “as a result of the overwhelming effect of the defendant’s needs upon their family life, and, as she puts it, he had sought solace elsewhere. The defendant’s deceit continued relentlessly.”

