A FANTASIST jailed for ten years for falsely accusing 15 men of rape and sexual assault has lost an appeal against her conviction.

Jemma Beale, 27, was tried and convicted of perverting the course of justice and perjury in 2017 after wrongly claiming she'd been assaulted by multiple men.

3 Jemma Beale has lost an appeal to overturn her 10 year jail sentence, after inventing a string of bogus sex attack allegations against 15 men

3 Beale made a series of sexual assault complaints between 2010 and 2013

3 Police spent 6,400 hours investigating a series of rape claims she made at a cost to the taxpayer of £250,000

Beale claimed she'd been seriously sexually assaulted by six men and raped by nine, all strangers, in four different encounters. In one bogus claim she said she had been gang-raped by eight men.

Her claim that she'd been raped by Mahad Cassim led to the then 23-year-old spending two years and nine months behind bars.

Beale was later awarded £11,000 in criminal injuries compensation while Mr Cassim languished behind bars.

APPEAL REJECTED

But her lawyers had attempted to overturn the conviction, arguing that extensive media scrutiny "could have compounded these myths and stereotypes which were never corrected by way of judicial guidance to the jury".

Today this appeal was rejected, as Beale was described as a "serial liar" who "fabricated accounts mostly of a sexual nature" in a bid to make her girlfriend jealous.

Defence lawyer Lawrence Henderson said during the 2017 trial that the offences began as a "drunken" attempt to get her partner's sympathy "or perhaps to arouse her jealousy".

Lady Justice Hallett told the Old Bailey: "This case went far further then myths and stereotypes about a complainant's behaviour. The appellant was accused of being a serial liar who fabricated accounts mostly of a sexual nature."

The system of justice has suffered considerable harm - considerable resources have been spent investigating and prosecuting crimes which never happened. There has been no indication of remorse on the appellant's part Lady Justice Hallett

Justice Hallett said that even had further guidance been given to the jury, it would not have assisted Beale in her appeal.

Police spent 6,400 hours investigating a series of rape claims she made at a cost to the taxpayer of £250,000, with the trial costing a further £110,000.

"The system of justice has suffered considerable harm - considerable resources have been spent investigating and prosecuting crimes which never happened," Justice Hallett said.

"There has been no indication of remorse on the appellant's part."



BOGUS COMPLAINTS

Beale made her first complaint on the morning of 26 November 2010, when she told police she had been raped by Mr Cassim the previous night.

Beale complained to police she was groped by a complete stranger, Noam Shahzad, in The Windsor Castle pub, in Hounslow, in July 2012, before he took part in a vicious gang rape on her in the car park of a nearby medical centre.

CCTV later showed that Beale had attacked him in the pub before walking home alone.

Forensic tests also showed she had cut herself with a hanging flower basket to make it look like she had been sexually assaulted with barbed wire.

Mr Shahzad skipped bail and fled the country after being charged with sexual assault.

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Beale then fabricated similar allegations against six other men in 2013.

She claimed two strangers sexually assaulted outside her home in Addlestone, Surrey, before she was put through another gang rape attack by four others two months later in Feltham.

Two of the men identified by Beale were arrested and interviewed but never charged.

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