Pictured: James Glessing outside Central London County Court after hearing
A businessman who moved out of his £1million home and into a pigsty after a bitter breakup has lost a court fight over the family home.
James Glessing, 63, and his partner Jane Lazell split up in 2015 when he accused her of cheating on him 30 years ago, despite her taking a polygraph test in a bid to convince him of her innocence.
The couple, who were together for 37 years, subsequently went to war in court over the future of their smallholding in Upminster, which they had built up over 25 years of striving at different businesses.
After the relationship broke down in 2015, Mr Glessing ended up living in a converted pigsty on their land, Central London County Court heard.
He claimed he hit rock bottom after his ex bundled his clothes outside the back door of their home and gave him his marching orders in 2016.
However, she flatly denied excluding him from the family house, insisting that he still holds a key and chose to move into the sty of his own accord.
Now a judge has turned down Mr Glessing's attempt to claim cash from his ex for the time he spent living in the pigsty, along with his bid to carve off a slice of their land for himself.
The court heard that Mr Glessing and Ms Lazell had already been together for 22 years when they built a home 15 years ago on their three-acre plot in Essex, which is now worth £1million.
They raised two children at the smallholding, which comprises a house, outbuildings and a farmyard which Mr Glessing said is 'one of the prettiest places in England'.
They sold free range eggs from their land, raised pigs and had an e-cigarette business, before Mr Glessing moved onto selling noodles and cleaning products.
A judge has turned down Mr Glessing's attempt to claim cash from his ex for the time he spent living in the pigsty, along with his bid to carve off a slice of their land for himself (pictured: Jane Lazell outside Central London County Court)
Pictured: One of the outbuildings on the £1m property in Essex at the centre of a court fight between James Glessing and his ex Jane Lazell
But Ms Lazell told the court that she and her ex split after Mr Glessing suggested she had slept with another man around 30 years ago.
'He got that in his head,' she said, and added: 'he had never articulated it before'.
'My reaction was total shock,' Ms Lazell told the court, and she insisted on taking a polygraph test to prove his suspicions false.
She
