A WOMAN who took her estranged husband to court after he sent naked pictures of her to a top-shelf magazine has denied having an affair.

Sharon Mains insisted she did not start seeing new boyfriend Richard Miller until after she split with husband, John.

Jilted Mr Mains, 43, from Darlington, wreaked revenge by sending explicit pictures of Mrs Mains to top-shelf magazine Escort.

As the Northern Echo revealed yesterday, he forged her signature so the saucy snaps would be published in the monthly magazine - and even received a cheque for £120 for them, although he did not cash it.

Mrs Mains, 31, who has since set up home with Mr Miller, 26, in nearby Cockerton, recalled how she was informed by a friend that the magazine had been in newsagents across the country for at least a week before she knew.

She said: "I have never felt so humiliated in all my life. I was distraught at the thought that people in my village, who I have known all my life, had been going around every day laughing at me and knowing what was going on."

And the mother-of-four spoke of the break-up of her marriage to Mains and her new relationship.

She said: "I left him because the marriage broke down. We just were not getting on any more, and this is how he reacted.

"I met him when he was my next-door neighbour. He had been living next door about a year and it began with the occasional 'hello' in the street, before things started to progress.

"He invited me out for a drink and we really hit it off from there.

"I moved straight in with him and we were living together for about six months before things started to go downhill.

"It all kicked off in July last year when he went into a bad mood for no reason and we started arguing.

"I had taken enough and started to leave with my kids and move into my new house."

She said Mr Miller was a mutual friend whom she started seeing a month after leaving Mr Mains.

Mains, of Greenbank Road, admitted forgery and obtaining property by deception when he appeared at Darlington Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

He was sentenced to a 12-month community rehabilitation order and ordered to pay £55 costs.