Ten years for the liar who made 9 false rape claims
Drunken accusations sent innocent man to prison
A WOMAN who made a string of false rape claims and sent an innocent man to prison was jailed for ten years yesterday.
Jemma Beale, 25, claimed she was raped by nine men and sexually assaulted by six, all strangers, in four encounters in three years.
Police spent 6,400 hours investigating her lies at a cost of £250,000, while one of the men she accused, Mahad Cassim, served two years in prison before Beale was exposed.
As he languished behind bars, jobless Beale pocketed £11,000 in criminal injuries compensation.
She was eventually charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice and was found guilty in July after a trial costing £109,000. She still maintains her claims are true.
But sentencing her at Southwark Crown Court in London yesterday, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said ‘manipulative’ Beale, who was in a relationship with a woman, was a convincing liar who enjoyed being seen as a victim. He added that the offences ‘usually began as a drunken attempt to get your partner’s sympathy or perhaps to arouse her jealousy’. The saga is believed be the most serious in which a woman has falsely claimed to be raped, something prosecutors insist remains rare.
It began in November 2010 when Beale, of Bedfont, west London, said she had been raped in an alley by Mr Cassim, a 37-year-old Somalian. He said she led him on and they had consensual sex. He was convicted of rape and jailed for seven years, with Beale saying no sentence could ‘reflect the life sentence that he gave me’. She went on to tell police she was the victim of two further sexual assaults in July 2012 and September 2013. Two months later she claimed to be the victim
‘Enjoy being seen as a victim’
of a gang rape involving up to four men.
Several men were arrested, including one who fled the country in shame, but no one was charged as detectives began to suspect that Beale was making false allegations and untangled her web of deception.
Mr Cassim’s lawyers were alerted and he was released from prison after applying to the Court of Appeal. But he said the conviction destroyed relationships with friends and family.
Yesterday Judge LoraineSmith said Beale was ‘solely responsible’ for the appalling miscarriage of justice.
He accused her of attempting to secure an even longer sentence for Mr Cassim with an emotional account of her supposed suffering. ‘ This trial has revealed, what was then not obvious, that you are a very, very convincing liar,’ he said.
The judge said each offence began impulsively, but the way she persisted in making untrue allegations was chilling.
Det Sgt Kevin Lynott said afterwards: ‘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.’