Teenage mother who made 'wicked' false rape claim is jailed for 15 months



'Wicked': A judge told Jade Brooks that her claim that she was raped had done 'a great disservice' to genuine victims

A young mother who falsely claimed she was raped by a teenager was yesterday locked away for 15 months.

Jade Brooks was 17 when she claimed the 18-year-old had taken her into a copse and attacked her.

He was later arrested, subjected to an intimate examination, kept in a cell for 13 hours and grilled by officers under caution before being released on police bail.

It was a further two months before he was told no further action would be taken after Brooks's story began to unravel.

Witnesses said they had seen her kissing and cuddling the young man shortly before the alleged attack near a disused railway station in Haverhill, Suffolk, and was laughing and embracing him immediately after they left the wooded area.

Brooks, who is now 19, was also seen by a friend performing a sex act on the teenager at a house later that evening.

She wept and protested her innocence yesterday as she learned she would be separated from her month-old baby daughter while she serves time in a young offenders institution for perverting the course of justice.

Judge David Goodin said an innocent man had been arrested and had his liberty taken away because of Brooks's 'wicked' claim.

He also reprimanded her for doing 'a huge disservice' to genuine rape victims.

Brooks was heavily pregnant when she was convicted following a four-day trial at Ipswich Crown Court in May.

Sentencing was delayed to allow her to recover from the pregnancy and for reports to be prepared.

Evidence: Ipswich Crown Court heard that Brooks consented to sex with the accused on the day of the alleged rape

During the hearing her victim described how he and two friends had been to a pub before meeting three girls, including Brooks, in the street.

He said she led him into the secluded spot for sex and later had sex with him again at a friend's house.

'I didn't rape her. She is just a liar and an attention seeker. She has got no one to feel sorry for her,' he added.

Brooks, of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was reported by one of her friends to have been tipsy but not drunk on the night of the alleged attack in July 2008.

She had allowed the man to touch her breasts and didn't seem uncomfortable with what was happening.

At no point during the time she was alone with him in the bushes did she scream, cry for help or raise her voice in any way.

The only comment she made afterwards was: 'I've lost my shoe.'

She dealt a final, fatal blow to the rape case when she refused to give a video-taped interview to police.

Shereen Dyer, defending, told the judge yesterday her client accepted the jury's verdict but stood by her version of events and insisted she had been telling the truth.

She had urged the court to pass a suspended sentence because of the damaging effect a term behind bars would have on Brooks and her young daughter.

However she could be released after serving half her sentence.