A 26-year-old Lewisham woman who falsely accused a man of harassing and making violent threats to her has today been jailed for 11 months at Woolwich Crown Court for perverting the course of justice.

Leighanne Rumbelow, of Foxborough Gradens, Brockley, contacted police on April 3 2013 making allegations that she had received threatening emails by a 21-year-old man she knew who was also sending her abusive messages.

The man was arrested the following day but denied the allegations.

He was bailed as detectives investigated but Rumbelow contacted police again stating she has received further threatening emails from the man.

The Crofton Park Safer Neighbourhoods team visited Rumbelow who at the time claimed she had seen the suspect in her garden a few minutes before and that he had sent her another threatening email whilst in the garden.

Officers alerted the local control room and a police helicopter and dog unit was used to trace the suspect.

The suspect however, claimed to have been home with his parents all evening and when officers searched the property they were unable to find any devices capable of sending emails.

In the meantime detectives carried out forensic enquiries into the emails that Rumbelow claimed had been sent to her and were unable to establish the internet protocol (IP) address from which the emails were sent.

After she had initially given police a false IP address that was based in Denmark, detectives eventually matched the IP address to her household internet connection.

Police arrested Rumbelow of June 22, 2013 and on January 6, 2014, she was charged with perverting the course of justice after pleading guilty.

Detective Constable Stephanie Pow, from Lewisham CID, who investigated the case said: "Rumbelow went to great lengths to create false email accounts in the name of her victim and sent herself threatening emails, to make it seem as though she was being targeted.

"She wasted a huge amount of police time; from the efforts of the response team officers dealing with her 999 calls, to the Safer Neighbourhoods officers carrying out welfare checks, to detectives and forensic officers who investigated the allegations. Not to mention the impact this had on the person she accused, who was entirely innocent."