Issued by: Attorney General's Office

A woman who lied to the police falsely accusing ten innocent men of rape had her sentence increased following intervention by the Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP.

Stacey Sharples, 31, from Farnworth, Bolton, had her sentence increased by two years and six months, after the Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP, referred her case to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

The court heard that Sharples contacted men online between 2013 and 2020, arranged to meet them in person, and then made false allegations of rape against them to the police. She repeated and sustained these accusations throughout, which led to eight separate police investigations involving ten victims.

The majority of victims were arrested and held in custody. The resulting investigations took months to conclude, at an estimated cost of over 550 hours of police time.

Within some of the victims’ personal statements, they described the impact that false allegations had on their daily lives, including loss of relationships and employment. Several victims reported lasting damage to their mental health and an inability to form new relationships.

The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP said:

"Stacey Sharples lied, repeatedly and deliberately, causing significant harm to ten 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."

On 11 March 2026, at Bolton Crown Court, Stacey Sharples was sentenced to four years and six months’ imprisonment for 10 counts of perverting the course of justice.

On 9 September 2026, at the Court of Appeal, Stacey Sharples’s sentence was increased to seven years.

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