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A WOMAN falsely accused her ex-boyfriend of repeatedly raping her in a "perverted act of revenge".

Liverpool crown court was told 44 year-old Julie Watts, went to police and made lengthy and detailed rape allegations about former partner John Maguire.

She even told officers that he had regularly used a knife to force her to have sex with him.

Liverpool crown court heard she "thought better of it eventually" and a month later retracted her allegations.

But the court heard that was not the end of Mr Maguire’s ordeal because prosecutors often see retractions from genuine victims.

The Crown Prosecution Service had to decide whether the prosecution was viable.

The court heard they eventually cleared Mr Maguire two months after Watts originally complained.

He had spent more than three hours in police custody.

Watts, of Flordon, Birch Green, Skelmersdale, was jailed for eight months.

Adrian Evans, defending said Watts bitterly regretted what she had done and had expressed remorse.

He told the court there had been violence and intimidation in the relationship between them.

Judge Brian Lewis told her he accepted that but it "did not begin to justify" her actions. He said: "By this time the relationship was over.

"This was a perverted act of revenge."

The judge told the court Mr Maguire did not spend long in custody but would have been "on tenterhooks" – terrified he would be wrongly convicted of very serious offences.

He told Watts: "The real damage is the extent to which your conduct diverts valuable time and resources from real allegations of rape.

"Jurors who come before this court trying genuine, honest allegations of rape find themselves being cynical and disbelieving because they have heard of people like you, who make up these allegations on a whim."

He told Watts there were genuine complainants who "leave court disappointed" because of the decisions made by such juries.

Watts admitted perverting the course of justice when she made the false allegation to police on March 16 last year.