Lisa-Jayne Samuels has been jailed for perverting the course of justice after she accused a man she barely knew of raping her - putting him through a year of hell

A mother-of-four has been jailed after she put a man through a year of hell by making up claims he had raped her.

Lisa-Jayne Samuels, 29, invented the allegation because she wanted her mother to feel sorry for her, a court heard.

She even had police draw up an e-fit to back up the bogus claims and picked a man, Terry Brown, out in an ID parade.

Her allegation hung over Mr Brown for more than a year before she finally admitted she had made up her claim that he spiked her drink and attacked her.

During that time he was attacked by a gang and his pregnant partner lost her baby, the court heard.

Samuels' own lawyer described her actions as 'loathsome' when she was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court, Essex.

She pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was jailed for 20 months.

Samuels, of Southend, Essex, called 999 at 1am on October 10, 2012, claiming to have been raped at the town's cliffs.

When interviewed, she gave a detailed description of her attacker, claiming she had been drinking with friends at the Last Post in Southend, where she met a man she knew from a night shelter who spiked her drink and attacked her.

An e-fit was drawn up and Mr Brown, of Basildon, Essex, was arrested the following year.

But he was later released without charge after police uncovered inconsistencies in Samuels's story.

CCTV from the Last Post and a nearby off-licence showed no sign of Samuels at the time she claimed to be there, and the friends she claimed she was with on the evening were found not to exist.

During a voluntary interview with Samuels on December 6, 2013, she eventually admitted to making up the whole story.

She said she had lied to try and reconcile with her mother.

It is understood she had seen Mr Brown, who hardly knew her, on the night she claimed she had been attacked and based the details of her fictitious attacker on him.

Samuels has a history of making such claims. In 2002, she made false claims to police, but later admitted it was so her mother would not find out she had slept with a Kosovan man.

In the same year, she phoned police saying she had been raped in a public toilet and also made a hoax fire call to 999.

The court heard Samuels, who had made false claims in the past, invented the allegation because she wanted her mother to feel sorry for her

Sentencing Samuels, Recorder Anthony Abell said: 'Rape is one of the most serious and repulsive crimes there is.

'A false allegation of rape can have dreadful consequences on the innocent person who has committed no crime whatsoever.

'It seems your initial call to the police was an impulsive act but you persisted in it, you made an e-fit and identified your supposed attacker in a line up - that was not impulsive. I have a duty to the public, meaning your sentence must be immediate and must be of some length. '

Samuels has struggled with addiction to alcohol and problems with drugs, including crack cocaine.

Her defence solicitor, Paul Vickers, tried to argue her sentence should be suspended, but he was unsuccessful.

He said: 'She accepts what she has done was loathsome and describes her actions as stupid.

'You are dealing with a lady who was homeless, intoxicated and in the grip of an addiction, who botched a scheme to enable her to get the support of her mother, to try to get her to feel sorry for her and to take her back and to rebuild her relationship with her. '