A woman from the United Kingdom has been handed a six-year prison sentence following her conviction in a £100,000 blackmail case involving a rape claim in the city of Hong Kong.
Isabel Rose, a resident of Hackney in east London, was found guilty of blackmail and obstructing the legal process. District Court Judge Adriana Tse emphasized during the trial that it was evident that Rose, aged 26, demanded £100,000 (equivalent to HK$1.05 million) from the man she accused of rape.
The 26-year-old received a six-year prison term at the District Court in Hong Kong and was transferred to Tai Lam Correctional Institution, which is the oldest maximum security women’s prison in the city.
Despite Rose’s legal counsel appealing for leniency due to her lack of prior criminal records and her foreign status in Hong Kong, Judge Tse dismissed the plea. Rose was restricted from working or leaving the region for two years leading up to her trial.
In 2024, the woman alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a man at his residence in Mid-Levels, a prosperous residential district in Hong Kong, during the early hours of February 1, 2024.
The man, identified as X throughout the legal proceedings, was initially detained on suspicion of rape. However, two days later, Rose was arrested on blackmail charges.
She was subsequently accused of demanding £100,000 (HK$1.05 million) from the man as part of the extortion plot.
During her trial in March, she faced charges of perverting the course of justice, with the prosecution asserting that she had fabricated a false rape report.
The man was never formally charged. The judge described X as a “truthful, credible, and dependable witness,” while Rose was characterized as “deceitful, untrustworthy, and unreliable,” according to Hong Kong Free Press.
Judge Tse imposed a five-year initial term for blackmail and an additional three years for obstructing justice. One year is to be served consecutively, resulting in a total of six years of imprisonment.
Make Daily Mirror your ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for swift access to the news that matters to you.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of <a data-testid="cipa-cookie-notice-link" href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/cookie-policy/" rel="noreferrer" target="_