Woman convicted of making false rape and sex assault claims against 15 men

Jemma Beale due to be sentenced next month

Jemma Beale, 25, has been convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice

A woman whose false sex attack allegations put one man in prison and caused another to flee the country has been convicted of perjury.

Prosecutors described Jemma Beale, 25, as a “determined liar” who had fabricated a string of claims of sexual assault and rape against innocent men.

She was found guilty of four counts of perjury and four of perverting the course of justice following a six-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Within the space of four years, Beale claimed she had been seriously sexually assaulted by six men and raped by nine, all strangers, in four different encounters, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Detectives launched an investigation into Beale in December 2013 after they learned of a claim by one of Beale's former girlfriends that a man had been wrongly jailed after Beale lied about being raped by him in November 2010.

Police said 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 during an incident in November 2013.

With concerns over Beale's account, officers carried out a review of four investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault made by Beale.

Police found common discrepancies and similar circumstances within the allegations, which strengthened their suspicions that Beale may have fabricated them.

The Met said one of the rape allegations made to police by Beale in 2010 led to the conviction of a man who was jailed for seven years.

After the CPS and his defence team were alerted to the fact that there were serious doubts over the validity of Beale's allegations, the Met said the man subsequently appealed against his conviction and it was quashed at the Court of Appeal in July 2015.

Police said this decision had been subject to reporting restrictions pending the completion of Beale's trial.

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.

“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.”

Beale, of Bedfont, Hounslow, was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on Thursday August 24.

PA