Elizabeth Jones, 22, jailed 16 months after 11th false rape claim

Elizabeth Jones, 22, has been jailed after she made 11 false rape claims in a decade. A Southampton court heard that she made her first false complaint at the age of 13.

The Telegraph reports that Jones confessed that she lied about her last allegation of rape, saying that she did so because she "did not like" the man. Police arrested her victim and questioned him for nine hours. The man, who has not been named, was later released without a charge. According to The Telegraph, it emerged in court that Jones made her first false complaint in 2004 at the age of 13, and later a string of false allegations against other men over a period of nine years. Prosecutors say she made more than eight allegations between 2005 and 2007, all of which police investigated and found no substantiating evidence. Police brought no charges against the men she accused and neither was she charged. However, in 2009, she was given a ten month detention and training order after she made another false allegation. In the last incident, Hampshire Police launched an investigation after she asked a friend to report that she (Jones) had been sexually assaulted. Then she appeared at the police station for a medical examination, repeating the allegation. Police arrested the man who denied the allegation. Later during the investigation, detectives viewed the surveillance camera footage of her encounter with the man and found there was no evidence he had used any force against her. Prosecutor Jennie Rickman said: "There is a history of her making false allegations of the nature and this is the 11th incident." Rickman added: "Police had to take her allegation seriously and carried out an appropriate investigation. She was later arrested and accepted she had lied about being raped - she said she did it because she did not like him." Judge Derwin Hope jailed Jones for 16 months after she admitted in court that she had lied. The judge said her offence caused a "terrible emotional experience" to her victim. The defending attorney Megan Topliss said her client had a difficult childhood after being taken into care. The Daily Mail reports that Detective Constable Tim Blanche of Southampton’s Public Protection Department, who led the investigation, acknowledged that Jones had a "complex" childhood. He said: "There was intimate contact between the couple, but they didn't live together." The police said Jones was dating the man she accused of raping her. She had an argument with him and fabricated the story against him. Detective Constable Blanche said: "The man was arrested and he gave a statement. He had to live his life with people accusing him of being a rapist." The Daily Mail reports that when the victim learned that Jones had been jailed 16 months, he expressed regret, saying, "he was disappointed and felt that the time wasn't long enough after what she put him through." Detective Constable Blanche added: "After the previous ten false allegations, Judge Hope felt that it was the final straw.The evidence in the case was so conclusive as the CCTV images were so clear. I imagine that with the previous allegations the evidence hasn't been there. We take rape allegations very seriously and those that make false claims need to face the consequences. False allegations completely undermine the work that the police have done and make it harder for genuine rape victims to come forward." UK's Express reports there have been similar cases of women bringing false rape accusations against men. The cases have led to calls that men accused of rape should be granted the same anonymity as the women making the claims. Express reports that last September, a 20-year-old woman was jailed for two years after she made false rape claims against three men she had consensual sex with after a night out. She later regretted having sex with the men and brought false accusations against them. In another case last August, a 23-year-old woman Emma Saxon, was jailed for eight months after she falsely accused a man she was dating of raping her. Police said that was Saxon's second false allegation of rape.