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49-year-old Sally Retallack was a lecturer at Elisa Bianco’s school, St. Austell College in Cornwall when the two first met. Bianco, then only 16 years old, was one of Retallack’s students in a health and social care course.
That was when the deceit first began.
Bianco tricked Retallack into helping her overcome a series of panic attacks. The kind lecturer became greatly concerned for the student and upon Bianco’s graduation, gave the girl £50 and her home address – just in case Bianco needed mental health support in the future.
Only four days after this encounter, Bianco showed up at Retallack’s front door with a black eye from “an alcoholic mother who beat her.”
Retallack immediately offered Bianco a safe place to stay, but two nights turned into months, and Retallack saw her relationships with her husband and four children deteriorate. Retallack was spending all of her time and money to care for Bianco because the girl didn’t appear to have any other supporters.
She sent Bianco to Plymouth University – only to have Bianco return back to her house after claiming her health problems were too severe to allow her to stay. This was when Bianco’s elaborate lie about having kidney cancer came to life.
Retallack proceeded to take compassionate leave off her job and even spent £2,000 to help Bianco complete a “bucket list” before she died from her illness. Bianco had a magnificent 21st birthday party in which she dressed as Elsa from Frozen and even fooled enough of her friends to attend the occasion, all of them believing that she was dying from her kidney cancer.
Retallack took Bianco to the zoo to see penguins, drove Bianco to the hospital each day for treatment, let her sleep in her bed at night for “all-day care” purposes, and more.
The fact that Retallack spent so much time, energy, and money on Bianco was ultimately what pushed her husband and family away from her. In their absence, Bianco created a fake man to keep Retallack happy and engaged – and thereby more capable of supporting her “needs.”
It was only when Bianco mistakenly left her phone in Retallack’s house when she went to the hospital for treatment that day that Retallack discovered the truth.
Retallack’s husband had contacted Bianco’s father, who immediately went off in search of Bianco at the hospital and called her cell phone.
The web of lies very quickly unraveled, and Bianco was tried in court.
Judge Christopher Henry Clark QC sentenced Bianco to two years and eight months in jail and has commented, “…it is the most extraordinary case I have had to deal with in a long time. …[Bianco] heartlessly manipulated Mrs. Retallack’s deepest emotions. No sentence will compensate her.”
