A man allegedly targeted by an infatuated work colleague accused of hiring a dark web hitman to kill him has denied 'reeling her in'.
Paul Belton, 50, was said to have been stalked for more than two-and-a-half years by Helen Hewlett, 43, after she was spurned following an intimate encounter between them in a car outside the factory where they both worked.
Norwich Crown Court has heard Hewlett is accused of paying more than £20,000 to a site on the dark web that purported to supply hitmen willing to carry out murders.
The prosecution claim it was after Hewlett, who is married with children, bombarded the fellow worker with a stream of emails despite his efforts to block her.
On Thursday (January 26) Mr Belton, who is also married with children, was cross-examined by defence barrister Matthew McNiff who suggested the witness had "lied, misled, fabricated your version of events about Helen".
But Mr Belton, who gave his evidence from behind a screen, denied that he had done so.
The jury of seven men and five women heard a suggestion from Mr McNiff that Mr Belton was "trying to create the impression that she was stalking you".
He asked whether he thought it was "fair or right" he had tried to create an impression "it was all her".
Mr Belton replied: "No, I don't think I did that" adding "that's how it was."
It was put to Mr Belton that there were "numerous occasions of intimacy" between him and the defendant which he denied.
Mr McNiff suggested "this was all driven by you, wasn't it?"
The witness said it was not.
Mr McNiff said Mr Belton had "manipulated" what he saw as a "very vulnerable woman" and "decided what was going to happen and where it would happen".
He replied: "No."
Mr Belton was said to have been "reeling in" Hewlett for "weeks and months".
He replied: "No."
The court has heard Hewlett had met Mr Belton while working at the Linda McCartney frozen food factory at Fakenham.
Prosecutor Marti Blair said her pursuit of him had been "relentless" after flirting between the pair had led to a single intimate encounter in a car which he "immediately regretted".
Hewlett, of the Hawthorns in King's Lynn, denies soliciting murder and stalking between January 2020 and August 2022.
The trial continues.
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