Woman who made up rape allegations ‘to make her lesbian partner jealous’ jailed
A fantasist who made up a string of rape allegations and falsely told a court she had never had consensual sex with a man has been jailed for 10 years.
Jemma Beale, 25, was jailed at Southwark Crown Court today on charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
The court had heard that Beale claimed to have been raped or sexually assaulted by 15 men over a period of three years.
One of her victims was imprisoned for two years as a result of a fake rape allegation, while Beale was awarded £11,000 in compensation.
Another man fled the country in fear after she accused him of sexual assault, before she was exposed as a repeated fantasist.
Police spent a total of 6,400 hours investigating her various claims. The police investigation cost £250,000, while the the wrongly-accused man’s trial cost £109,000.
Beale had insisted she was a lesbian who had never consensually slept with a man, but was later revealed to have had a boyfriend with whom she had a sexual relationship. She faced a perjury charge over the claim.
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: “This trial has revealed, what was then not obvious, that you are a very, very convincing liar and you enjoy being seen as a victim.
“The prosecution described your life as a ‘construct of bogus victim hood’.”
He added that she had “made up” the complaints to impress her female partner, saying: “These offences usually began as a drunken attempt to get your partner’s sympathy or perhaps to arouse her jealousy.
“They each began impulsively, but what is particularly chilling is the manner in which you persisted in making allegations which you knew were untrue even to the extent of committing and repeating perjury.”
These false allegations of rape, false allegations which will inevitably be widely publicised, are likely to have the perverse impact of increasing the likelihood of guilty men going free.
“Cases such as this bring a real risk that a woman who has been raped or sexually assaulted may not complain to the police for fear of not being believed.”
Metropolitan Police Detective Sergeant Kevin Lynott said: “Her manipulation of the criminal justice system has caused police to direct significant amounts of resource into investigating her bogus complaints as well as her own offending.
“She has also significantly impacted on the NHS as a result of her complaints and used up many other limited resources that are relied upon by genuine survivors.
“Not only that, but she then went on to give false testimony at court, which resulted in the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of a completely innocent man.
“Beale has been exposed as a serial liar and I can only think that she was motivated partly by financial reward, but mainly the attention and control over her partners and family at the time she made the allegations.
“The impact on those she falsely accused has been devastating, however hopefully the outcome now fully exonerates all the men she falsely accused of such heinous crimes.”
