A woman told 'lie after lie' in court in a bid to provide a false alibi to help a paedophile escape justice.

Dawn Petros, 42, gave a "polished performance" when she gave evidence during the trial of Kirkland Deasley, 55, who was charged with sex offences involving a 13-year-old girl, Norwich Crown Court heard.

The court heard she provided him with a false alibi for the weekend the sex assaults took place,

However despite her actions, Charles Falk, prosecuting, said the jury saw through the lie and Deasley was convicted and jailed for six years in July last year.

Petros, of Exmouth Road, Great Yarmouth, and Deasley, who appeared over a video link from Peterborough Prison, admitted conspiracy to pervert the course the justice at an earlier hearing and appeared for sentence on Monday.

Judge Katharine Moore jailed Petros for two years and added a further three years to the sentence of Deasley.

She told them that it was a serious matter and said Petros had been persistent about the false alibi, even providing a statement to police and repeating the matter on oath in court.

She said: "It strikes at the heart of the criminal justice system."

She told Petros: "You entered the courtroom with an air of confidence and told lie after lie. It was something of a polished performance."

She added: "Only you know how and why you came to be involved in this offence. It is plainly not the sort of behaviour you ordinarily engage in."

Simon Gladwell, for Deasley, said: "It was completely foolish and doomed to fail from the outset."

"It was obviously seen through by a jury. It was not a very clever means of trying to avoid conviction."

He said that Deasley was putting his time in jail to good use and was doing an Open University course.

Andrew Thompson, for Petros, said she did not have full knowledge of the case and believed in Deasley's innocence.

He said in the end the course of public justice was not perverted by the pair's actions as Deasley was convicted of the offences.

He said that she was at low risk of re-offending,

Mr Thompson said that any custodial sentence would severely impact her family.