A WOMAN dubbed the “Black Widow” after murdering her husband with a poisoned curry on his birthday has been released from prison.

Dena Thompson, 61, walked free after serving 19 years behind bars following a decision by the Parole Board in May.

Thompson was jailed for life in 2003 after being convicted of killing her second husband, Julian Webb, at their home in the village of Yapton, near Bognor, on his 31st birthday in June 1994.

She was described by police as “every man’s nightmare” and said she had targeted men “sexually, financially and physically” for a decade.

Thompson, of Cullompton in Devon, hid anti-depressants in Mr Webb’s favourite meal and laced his drinks with ground aspirin.

She claimed he had taken his own life, but the truth of her crimes emerged seven years after the murder when his body was exhumed and tests revealed a higher level of drugs in Mr Webb’s body than first thought.

Thompson had married Mr Webb in 1991 while still married to her first husband Lee Wyatt, who told a court she had made false accusations against him, made him go on the run and set him up to take the blame for her frauds.

She went on to marry her third husband, Richard Thompson, and lived together in Rustington, near Brighton.

Soon after their marriage, she attacked him with a baseball bat and a knife during a sex bondage session. Thompson told a court in 2001 that she had feared for her life after her life of deceit, in which she spent thousands of pounds of his money, was exposed.

The couple divorced and Thompson was cleared by a jury of attempted murder but was jailed for three years and nine months for 15 counts of deception after stealing thousands of pounds from her three past lovers.

At the time of her crimes, Thompson was “deceptive”, “could hold grudges” and did not always have “control of her temper”, Parole Board papers said.

While behind bars, she had taken part in rehabilitation courses, therapy, training and had already been temporarily released from prison.

Thompson will have restrictions imposed on who she contacts, her movements and activities, and will also have to disclose any new relationships, provide details of vehicles she uses, as well as her passport and bank details when required.

She will also have to wear an electronic tag and adhere to a curfew.

A parole document also said that the “financial backing built up from the sale of her artwork” would reduce the risk of reoffending.