Mother who falsely accused 10 men of rape has jail term increased
Stacey Sharples, 31, from Greater Manchester, has had her jail term increased to seven years
A mother who falsely accused 10 men of raping her has had her prison sentence increased by two-and-a-half years after the Court of Appeal ruled her original term was “unduly lenient”.
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Stacey Sharples, 31, made false reports causing men to be held in custody at police stations, lose jobs and partners, and be separated from their children.
She met the men from Greater Manchester on Facebook and dating apps Plenty of Fish and Badoo between 2013 and 2019 when she was aged between 18 and 24.
Sharples admitted 10 counts of perverting the course of justice at Bolton Crown Court in March and was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
The Attorney General referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal and on Wednesday judges increased the term to seven years.
An estimated 264 hours of police time and around £50,000 were wasted in months-long investigations, the court heard.
Sharples repeated her allegations in lengthy video-recorded interviews but police found many inconsistencies in her accounts.
Sharples, from Farnworth in Bolton, appeared at the London court on Wednesday by video link from HMP Styal in Cheshire.
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Lord Justice Popplewell, sitting with Mr Justice Linden and Mrs Justice Hill, said: “The allegations were of extremely serious conduct all involving rape, and in some cases multiple rapes with serious violence and threats.
“Had the victims been convicted, their sentences would in total have been very lengthy indeed.”
He said false rape allegations undermine real victims of rape and have a serious effect “on the minds of the public who may be called as jurors, which may cause doubts in the mind where none should exist”.
The judge said Sharples “lured” one victim to a shop so he could be arrested in public and told another “watch what happens now” after he refused her advances.
She told one victim: “They’re not pressing charges, I’ve got away with it yet again.”
Julia Faure Walker, representing the Attorney General, said the sentencing judge had not increased the sentence enough to reflect the number of victims.
She said: “This case clearly falls into the category of causing not just some distress or impact, but serious distress or impact.
“The vast majority were arrested, spent time in custody and remained under investigation for months.”
Hunter Gray, representing Sharples, said the original sentence had been reduced due to Sharples’ mental health and lack of intellect – which the judge decided constituted a learning disability.
He said Sharples “accepts responsibility” but “still struggles to understand why she did what she did”.
During the original sentencing, the judge had described Sharples as a “sexual predator” who sought out “sexual encounters with males with whom you have had no real relationships”.
The judge said she then “bombarded” the men with “out of proportion” expressions of love and if they did not respond she reported them for rape.
Sharples did have consensual sex with five of the men, one in the homeless hostel where she was living, before she accused them of rape.
The first offence, when she was 18, began when she told her father that a 16-year-old boy had threatened her with a knife and forced her to perform oral sex.
Sharples, who falsely claimed one victim was her boyfriend, told a psychiatrist she did not know why she stopped her offending but said it coincided with the Covid pandemic and her meeting her current partner in 2022.
Attorney General Ellie Reeves said: “Stacey Sharples lied, repeatedly and deliberately, causing significant harm to 10 victims and wasting hundreds of hours of police time that should have gone towards supporting genuine victims.
“Rare cases like this must not discourage genuine victims from coming forward. Every report of rape is rightly taken seriously and treated with the care it deserves.
“Anyone who seeks to exploit or undermine genuine acts of violence against women and girls must be held to account. I thank the police for their diligence in uncovering the truth, and my thoughts remain with the victims who were falsely accused.”