Ten Years In Prison Who Falsely Accused 15 Men Of Sexual Assault
This week, an appeals court upheld the prior conviction and ten-year prison sentence of a West London woman named Jemma Beale, who made false rape allegations against 15 different men. Beale was initially sentenced to ten years in prison after a 2017 trial. However, she filed for appeal claiming that she was wrongly convicted. She also appealed to the sympathy of the court, saying that even if she was guilty, she should still receive a lighter sentence because she was abused as a child.
One of the men who she accused spent two years in jail for something that he didn’t do, and another falsely accused suspect was forced to flee the country.
Despite the fact that a massive investigation into her claims determined that she was lying, Beale continues to profess her innocence, insisting that she was sexually assaulted by these 15 different men.
Her lawyers say that the judges’ decision has been impacted by the negative media attention that Beale received.
“The learned judge erred because he failed to give a direction about the dangers of myths and stereotypes. She was the subject of extensive media scrutiny in which she was vilified. The effect of which might have been to further prejudice the jury in the absence of such a direction. This reporting compounded or could have compounded these myths and stereotypes which were never corrected by way of judicial guidance to the jury,” Beale’s attorney Gillian Jones told the court.
Jones reportedly referenced a social media post about the case that read “an attractive male does not need to have sex with a whale.”
Jones also said that Beale should get a lighter sentence because she was abused as a child.
“That clearly had a huge impact on this young woman’s life and resulted in a rapid downward spiral. This is a very damaged young lady and it clearly had a large part to play in the way she acted. The nub of it is whether or not sufficient weight was given to what is clearly an extensive history of difficulty,” Jones said.
Lady Justice Hallett, one of England’s most senior female judges, was one of the three judges on the panel that dismissed the 27-year-old woman’s appeals.
“This case went far further then myths and stereotypes about a complainant’s behavior. The appellant was accused of being a serial liar who fabricated accounts mostly of a sexual nature. In the light of the evidence called even if the guidance was given it would not have assisted the appellant. 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,” Hallett said.
Thousands of hours of police resources were dedicated to investigating these rape claims, with a £250,000 cost to the taxpayers.
According to The Sun:
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 center. 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. 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.
It seems that there is considerable evidence that Beale had the lives of many young men ruined, and caused a massive waste in government resources and taxpayer funds. The media coverage about the case may have been sensational, and she may have had a terrible childhood as she says, but that is no reason to do the things she did.
Photo: The Sun