Unbelievable but true British stories.

This story featured in the UK press.

A Syrian-born airline pilot allegedly tricked a schoolteacher from Haverfordwest into having sex with him by pretending he had to administer ointment on the end of his penis, a jury heard yesterday (Tuesday).

Fadi Sbano, 38, even pretended to know a gynaecologist who advised him on how often to have intercourse with her and whether to thrust "slowly or quickly". And, on the "doctor's advice", he kept a clock on the bedside table to time the sessions.

The teacher put up with the treatment for nine months before telling her doctor.

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Huw Rees, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court: "The allegations here are of rape by deception."

Mr Rees said the pair met while Sbano was based at Gatwick and the teacher was working nearby.

In November, 2000, she discovered a rash of white spots and feared that typhoid, which she contracted on holiday some years before, had returned.

Sbano claimed he was in talks with a gynaecologist who was anxious for a certain cream to be applied, the prosecutor said.

"He (Sbano) suggested he would apply the cream to his penis and apply it inside her.

Mr Rees said the woman found the sessions "Clinical, not at all erotic". She consented only because she believed it was a proper treatment.

"When the insertions took place, and depending on the instructions of his friend, he would thrust slowly or quickly for anything from one to ten minutes,"

Her doctor told her to find out the identity of Sbano's gynaecologist friend but he "became evasive and never gave his name" beyond the word "Ibby".

"It began to dawn on her that he had devised this treatment in order to have sex with her on his terms."

Mr Rees said "Ibby" was traced but said he knew nothing about the treatment.

Sbano was arrested at Heathrow while attending a pilots' training facility.

He claimed the woman had invented the entire story about the "treatment".

Sbano, from Harrow, London, denies nine charges of rape and 11 or obtaining money by deception.

A Syrian born airline pilot accused of raping a schoolteacher from Haverfordwest by deception has walked free from court after the judge suddenly halted the trial.

Judge Christopher Morton said Fadi Sbano, 38, should not face a retrial.

Judge Morton listened to legal argument by both the prosecution and defence teams before calling the jury back into Swansea crown court on Tuesday and telling them he was ending the trial. No verdicts were returned.

He said there had been "concerns" about the conduct of the case but they did not reflect on either the prosecution or defence barristers or solicitors.

But matters had come to light which required further investigation.

Judge Morton then turned to a breach of bail by Sbano, which he admitted.

Huw Rees, prosecuting, said Sbano had been due to stand trial on September 12, 2005, but absconded.

Sbano's solicitor Nigel Richardson said he had spent a total of seven months in custody--partly because of the breach of bail--and urged the judge not to impose a further jail sentence.

Judge Morton agreed that because of the length of time he had spent on remand no separate penalty would be imposed.

During the trial, the prosecution had alleged that Sbano, from Harrow, fooled the woman into believing he could cure her herpes by having sexual intercourse with cream applied on the end of his penis.

He was also accused of deceiving both her and her mother into giving him thousands of pounds to buy the cream.

Sbano denied rape by deception and obtaining money by deception.

The trial ended before Sbano could give evidence but his barrister, Bernard Richmond QC, put it to the woman that she had invented the story.