THE Gwent fishmonger who became one of Anthea Jane Jones' lovers today tells how she hooked him for "no strings" sex.

Abergavenny businessman Richard Gafney also tells how the first time he heard the self-confessed "brazen hussy's" real name was when he was interviewed by the police.

Mr Gafney, 40, met Mrs Jones when she went into his shop, Vin Sullivan's, in Abergavenny, in 2004.

He said: "I did not really notice her at first, only subsequently because she is attractive. But she was suggestive and she gave me her mobile number, so I knew I was on to a good thing.

"I can't remember the date when we first met, but I would say it was in 2004, and I only saw her on and off for about 12 months, and then it would only be every three or four weeks.

"I called her Louise because that was what she told me her name was, and it was not until I was interviewed last August that I realised it was not her name."

Mr Gafney revealed that he later made most of the running in their sexual encounters ters by sending her text messages to arrange meetings.

He said: " We had sex in the shop just once, the rest of the time we met at her two homes. She did not tell me straight away that she was married, I think it was probably on the second or third occasion that she confessed she had a husband who was a pharmacist, and said he was older than her."

Mr Gafney, who is vice-president of Abergavenny Chamber of Trade, said he had no intention of getting into a relationship with Ms Jones.

"She was just a bit of fun and I had no intention of forming a relationship, and she was of the same mind. She just wanted to have some fun with no strings," he said. Mr Gafney said his sexual encounters with Mrs Jones fizzled out when he got a new girlfriend, so he stopped contacting her.

Mrs Jones, 37, of Black Rock, Clydach, was cleared of soliciting former lover Lenny Loveridge, of Hereford, to murder her Llanhilleth pharmacist husband Francis Jones, 60. She had denied the charge.

Mr Gafney said he never believed Mrs Jones would have wanted to have her husband killed.

"I have never believed she was capable of something like that, she's not that sort of girl," he said.

Key prosecution witness Debra Benjamin made contact with Mr Gafney after the Argus exclusively revealed Mrs Jones was facing the charge on November 12 last year.

Mr Gafney said: "She started to discuss the case with me and I thought it was strange that she should discuss this in public with me when she was a key witness. I believed it was bizarre, so I rang the police."

During the trial, Mrs Jones admitted to a string of affairs including one with a builder whom she started seeing after throwing a packet of polo mints into his van with her telephone number on, former SAS soldier Bob Routledge, Mr Loveridge and Mr Gafney.

Mr Gafney, who appeared as a defence witness, said he has found it very difficult to cope with the national media interest in the case.

He said: "You do something innocently and you find your personal life dragged through the court and it could happen to a lot of people. People do see me as a very innocent party in all this."

But he revealed that his friends, fellow traders and customers had treated the newspaper articles with amusement.

Now, he says he wants to put the whole case behind him.

He said: "The intrusion into your private life is the hardest thing, it's like washing your dirty linen in public."