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Woman jailed 10 years for making false rape allegations

A woman who made false rape allegations has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. 25-year-old Jem...
Newstalk
Newstalk

18.52 24 Aug 2017


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Woman jailed 10 years for maki...

Woman jailed 10 years for making false rape allegations

Newstalk
Newstalk

18.52 24 Aug 2017


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A woman who made false rape allegations has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

25-year-old Jemma Beale - of Bedfont, Hounslow in the UK - was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court, having previously been found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice.

She made a series of false rape and sexual assault allegations to police over a three-year period.

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Detectives from a special sexual offences unit launched an investigation in December 2013, after they learned of a claim by one of Beale's former girlfriends that a man - Mahad Cassim - had been wrongly jailed after Beale had lied that she had been raped by him in November 2010.

The information came to light when officers were investigating a separate allegation by Beale, where she claimed to have been raped by a number of men in November 2013.

Officers carried out a review of four investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault made by Beale between 2010 and 2013.

Police found common discrepancies and similar circumstances, which strengthened their suspicions.

One of the rape allegations made to police by Beale in 2010 led to the conviction of Mahad Cassim, who was jailed for seven years.

After the UK's Crown Prosecution Service and his defence team were alerted to the fact that there were serious doubts over the validity of Beale's allegations, Cassim subsequently appealed against his conviction.

It was quashed at the Court of Appeal in July 2015.

This decision had been subject to reporting restrictions, pending the completion of Beale's trial.

In another case, Beale claimed she had been sexually assaulted by Noam Shazad in a pub and then subjected to a serious sexual assault in a car park.

Mr Shazad was charged with sexual assault, but fled the UK for Pakistan prior to his trial.

All charges against Mr Shazad have since been dropped and police say he is no longer wanted in relation to any of these matters.

"Serial liar"

Beale was arrested in June 2014, but maintained that she was not making up any of the allegations.

During the trial, Beale even accused four separate doctors and medical professionals that they gave wrongful evidence, rather than admit that she was lying.

However, the jury found her guilty of four counts of perjury and four counts of perverting the course of justice.

Detective Sergeant Kevin Lynott, who led the investigation into Beale's false allegations, said: "Cases such as this are exceptional and very rare but it does show how seriously we take allegations of rape and sexual assault and that we will carry out a thorough investigation in order to get to the truth.

"Beale is responsible for fabricating a series of extremely serious allegations, which led to several extensive investigations being carried out and teams of detectives and specialist officers spending thousands of hours on the cases and providing support to her.

"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.

"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."


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