The woman who accused Neil and Christine Hamilton of rape has been warned she faced a "substantial" jail sentence after she was found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Nadine Milroy-Sloan, 29, was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey after 13 hours of deliberations.

The prosecution argued that she was a "cunning" fantasist who had come up with the scheme to find fame and fortune.

Following the verdict, Mrs Hamilton said: "I'm relieved. We've known right from the outset that what she said about us was a pack of lies. The whole thing has just been a grotesque charade, but I'm delighted at last, over two years after she made the original allegations, justice has been done."

Milroy-Sloan complained to police in May 2001 that she had been attacked by former Tory minister Mr Hamilton and his wife in a flat in Ilford, Essex.

She claimed she had been lured to the flat by 62-year-old Barry Lehaney, who she said had told her he was the Hamiltons' chauffeur.

But Milroy-Sloan, who had a criminal record, had never met the couple and invented the story to make money.

Two days before the alleged attack, she went to see publicist Max Clifford with a story about the Hamiltons being involved in a vice ring and a tax scam.

Judge Simon Smith granted Milroy-Sloan conditional bail to appear at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court, London, on June 13 for sentencing.

He told her that the granting of bail was "no indication that I am thinking of any sentence other than a substantial period of custody for this".

Milroy-Sloan, formerly of Grimsby and now living at an undisclosed address, hugged her third husband Terry as she was released from the dock.

After the verdict, Mr Hamilton called on the Government to change the law so that those accused of rape were given the same anonymity as victims.

He said the verdict "drew a line" under the ordeal for him and his wife but that action needed to be taken so the same thing could not happen to others. "The police certainly need to tighten up their procedures to ensure nobody else had to go through the unnecessary pain we have had to go through" he added.