An usher wept as she told an Old Bailey jury that she was taken in by the charms of a man who was on trial in her court.

Samantha Dimon, 34, of Goose Garden Close, Horsham, said Mohammed Patel persuaded her to visit him in jail but she was shocked when he asked her to try to nobble the jury.

Dimon, who denies misconduct and perverting the course of justice, said Patel comforted her after she opened up her heart to him about her abusive partner.

Married Patel had been friendly towards her during the four-month trial at Kingston Crown Court in 2000.

She said: "I suppose I felt sorry for him. I got taken in by his charm. I got my head turned.

"He asked me to talk to the jurors - I can only assume to try to get him off. I said 'absolutely no way'."

She added: "It was friendship. It was never any more than that.

"I thought he was being just friendly but now, looking back, I can only assume he saw someone who was vulnerable and he tried to use me."

Dimon said she visited Patel in Wandsworth prison after his bail was rescinded, when the jury retired to consider its verdicts.

But it had been to tell him the friendship could not continue because she feared losing her job.

She agreed that she later passed him a note in the dock. She claimed it had been to tell him his wife was in the public gallery.

Dimon said she went to the cells at the court in "a stupid error of judgment" after someone asked her to give Patel a £20 note.

She said she had been at a low ebb at the time and had been "an idiot" but had never intended to jeopardise the trial.

She had since lost the job she loved and her home. She was living with her mother and had become depressed.

The prosecution alleges Dimon tried to influence a juror after forming a "close relationship" with Patel.

The trial continues.