Woman jailed for ten years for false rape accusations

[OlennasWimple]

Can we discuss this case? It's interesting for lots of reasons, including that the sentence she has been given for making multiple false accusations is over three times the length that one of the men who was falsely accused was given for actual rape

fuckit - when she was found guilty it was reported a little while ago. She has just been sentenced, hence the recent reporting

"Miss Beale is a 25 year old vulnerable defendant who has been diagnosed as suffering with an emotionally unstable personality disorder of borderline type. She has been granted special measures in the trial. An intermediary will assist her if she gives evidence"

www.5rb.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/R-v-Jemma-Beale-2017-EWCA-1012-Crim.pdf

Not familiar with the case, and obviously these repeated accusations are without question criminal. However it's quite common with those who commit these false accusations it's a way of acting out from a buried occasion where they were raped, not taken seriously or otherwise powerless.

These accusations in such cases are less about a malignant desire to hurt men, but more a desperate plea for someone, anyone to please take them seriously. The fact that in this case on one occasion she injured herself to sell the deception gives me pause enough to consider that possibility.

I'll leave it to other people to decide wether she should be in prison or not. I honestly don't know, perhaps she does. However if my suspicions prove correct she also needs help and support to get to the bottom of this behaviour.

I'm not condoning women who make false accusations, but it's often worthwhile putting the crime into context. It is a really tough topic as on the one hand the criminality is indisputable, so from a law and order perspective I can agree with the sentence. However as a human being if her behaviour is a direct result of trauma inflicted long ago I cannot help but feel some measure of compassion and empathy is warranted both towards her, and when we tend to discuss cases such as this.

In his sentencing statement the judge was very harsh with his words. It pretty much implies that he didn't believe she was vulnerable or mentally ill.

“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 victimhood’.”

“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.”

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/24/woman-jailed-10-years-false-rape-claims-jemma-beale

That's one reason the sentencing was so harsh.

Let's try not to be apologists for a criminal who has caused real harm by suggesting she is mentally ill. She knew what she was doing was wrong. I also can't quite get my head round the statements that being falsely accused of rape isn't all that bad and doesn't ruin your life.

The language used in this thread is similar, and equally disgusting, to that used against rape victims.

Lets not use this case as a stick to beat real victims of sexual crime , female and male, with. She's a criminal who happens to be a woman. I can't see what that has to do with the majority of women who don't behave in this way.

She has caused a lot of misery and she will damage things for real victims of crime.
She is clearly not well though. I don't mean mentally, as only a psychiatrist can diagnose. But she doesn't look very well and it looks like she hasn't ever been well cared for by anyone. It is a sad case.
I think she deserves a sentence though as it is a truly awful crime.

I think it's bad that she got longer then a rapist. Just look at all the celebrities who's careers are still thriving after accusations, I'm sure those men are still doing just fine

Dervel if we use your argument then any person abused as a child who then goes on to abuse children themselves should be treated with understanding and sympathy due to the trauma they faced. I'm not sure about that, I certainly don't think that is the stance that people take just now.

She got 10 years, 5 in prison and 5 out on some sort of checklist.
She accused 15 people so isn't isn't a minor offence.

Jonathan Aitken and Jeffrey Archer got 18 months and 4 years for perjury and if I recall correctly their cases each involved one single case of perjury. This woman has lied and perjured herself about fifteen different cases so she will get a longer sentence.

I think her sentence is justified.

I also think rapists should get longer sentences.

They defintley happen. They just don't tend to make the headlines.

And they are used to scam insurances, not individuals. Have you ferret ever heard of a case where a person says "that guy burgled me"?

You are incredibly disingenuous in this thread, completely off topic, and then accused someone else of derailing it.

What I think is the saddest is that she probably has been raped, just not by any of the men she accused. BPD is strongly associated with sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence.

Some people with borderline personality disorder are incredibly hard to deal with and effectively contribute to them being abused further - which is what she has done by no doubt looking utterly unsympathetic in court and so ending up in prison with a longer sentence than many men get for an actual rape.

It would have helped if anyone in court had had some awareness of borderline personality disorder. It's not a get out of jail free card - but neither do I think 10 years in jail is the right outcome for a mentally ill woman.

To anyone feeling bad for her

I don't think anyone here feels bad for her.

She deserves everything she gets. This evil woman ruined innocent men.

I suspect the vast majority of prisoners have some mental health issues, or some other "issue" which contributed to them making a decision to commit a crime.

It doesn't excuse them and her mental health issues shouldn't excuse her!

False accusations rarely do any real harm to men.

Oh FFS

Rape is seen as the most heinous crime ever when someone is falsely accused of it. It sends shivers up and down the spines of many men, and women's hearts skip a beat imagining their sons or husbands being falsely accused.

The dreadful injustice of being wrongly accused of such an evil act resonates.

Quite rightly.

It just doesn't seem to be quite such a heinous act when the accusation is not false. Convictions notwithstanding.

Sexual assault is commonplace. As evidenced by the many threads currently here on mumsnet. In fact rape was completely legal until less than 30 years ago.

What this woman did was dreadful. She falsely accused men of what is one of the worst crimes possible.

It would be useful if that crime of rape was seen more as the abhorrent act it truly is. Not something that becomes the worst crime ever, when the accusation is false.

.

The voices of Middle England...

Oh I despair.

It's just infuriating that this extremely rare case is seen as something that happens constantly. As if the world is full of women crying rape.

And I suppose it was these type of comments that the judge had in mind when he made the comments he did.

As opposed to the real situation where thousand of women are being raped and often not even realising they have been raped (because it was their husband/partner/because they didn't fight him off) let alone reporting it, let alone it getting to court, let alone it ending in a bloody conviction!

And they are used to scam insurances, not individuals. Have you ferret ever heard of a case where a person says "that guy burgled me"?

You are incredibly disingenuous in this thread, completely off topic, and then accused someone else of derailing it.

You are missing the point. What Ferrets was referring to is the mindset and the hand wringing that this case makes it so more difficult for genuine victims to report rape.

Why is that a given? It makes no difference to genuine victims of theft that there are false accusations of theft made. People don't not report theft for that reason. The judge's comments , whilst intended to be helpful , just add succour to the notion that rape victims won't be believed.

Collidascope

Ugh. Those comments. You can't help thinking that if men are so worried about being falsely accused of rape, that perhaps they have good reason to be.