Hong Kong court convicts British woman of blackmailing banker over false rape claim
Judge brands defendant ‘thoroughly dishonest’ for fabricating rape claim to extort compatriot out of £100,000
A British woman has been convicted of blackmailing a compatriot for a £100,000 (US$134,030) payout after accusing him of rape and threatening to report him to Hong Kong police.
Isabel Anonia Barbra Eudora Rose, 25, turned from an alleged rape victim into a defendant standing trial at the District Court in Wan Chai for blackmailing the man, a banker she met during a trip to Thailand, and for making a false police report about the alleged rape, which she claimed took place on the night of January 31, 2024.
In her verdict on Tuesday, Judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching said she believed the man’s account, whose identity was withheld in court, dismissing Rose’s allegations and describing her as “thoroughly dishonest, incredible and unreliable”.
The trial evidence relied heavily on messages exchanged between the pair and their respective testimonies about their meeting in Thailand in December 2023, leading up to Rose’s visit to Hong Kong the following month.
Rose, an event management professional from London, agreed to stay at the man’s one-bedroom flat in Central during her trip. She claimed that the rape occurred on the first night of her arrival.
Messages between them showed that after the alleged non-consensual encounter, Rose told the man that he had “violated” her that night as she “didn’t want to have sex”.