The scorned ex-girlfriend of a senior government lawyer who tried to destroy his career with false rape claims in an eight-month “campaign of terror” has been jailed for almost three years.

Law student Sana Musharraf, 34, made a string of bogus allegations against Jason Whiston for revenge when he refused to marry her and broke off their relationship.

She reported Mr Whiston, the deputy director of the Government’s legal department, to the police for rape and repeated the false claims to his friends and family, colleagues and the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Isleworth crown court heard Mr Whiston was interviewed by police and feared for his career, as officials in the Cabinet Office and 10 Downing Street were informed of Musharraf’s allegations.

Jailing her for two years and nine months yesterday, Recorder David Balcombe QC said Musharraf made the false rape claim as part of a campaign “calculated to cause him as much harm as possible ... motivated by anger at being rejected, jealousy, resentment, and a desire for revenge”.

The court heard Mr Whiston befriended Musharraf in 2013, and offered her a room at his Norbiton home the next year.

His long-term relationship with the mother of his children had broken down, and he and Musharraf started dating.

But after two-and-a-half years he broke it off when Musharraf, a refugee from Pakistan, said she could not marry a non-Muslim and he would not convert.

Musharraf targeted him and his new partner between July 2017 and February last year, turning up at their home and at his office.

He said he now suffers chronic anxiety and has lost his post as a guest lecturer at the London School of Economics. The judge put a restraining order on Musharraf, of Tottenham, to stop her contacting Mr Whiston’s family or making false claims.