Rape is a crime that destroys lives. Those who commit these heinous offences leave their victims emotionally scarred, often too terrified to go out alone or to trust in strangers ever again.

Any man who is convicted of rape should be quite rightly vilified and shunned by the rest of society.

Rape being such an emotive issue, however, instances of women making false accusations of rape can have equally disastrous consequences.

There are many people who believe the old adage that there is no smoke without fire, so even when a claim is proved to be false there can be lasting damage to the reputation of the accused, innocent though he is.

It is entirely correct, then, that the law takes a dim view of such bogus claims, and the jailing of a woman for claiming she had been raped to deflect guilt from herself after a casual encounter with a man who was not her partner should send a message to anyone else considering such a hazardous course of action.

The rights and wrongs of this particular liaison in which both parties were in other relationships aside, it is to be hoped that the man who was falsely accused does indeed leave this sordid mess without his name tarnished.

And it should be a salutory lesson to everyone that lying about such serious issues is not only a waste of police time and public money, but a crime that is punishable by the most severe penalties.