The woman turned her attention to the man's family. She told police a man had run her off the road and used a knife to attack her. She said he had a car like her ex partner's father. Police found a steak knife at the scene but it matched the ones at her house, and regardless the allegations were inconsistent with her injuries. She pointed the finger at her ex partner's family as suspects in more crimes. She alleged they had broken into her home and stolen her iPad. Police found the iPad wrapped in a dishtowel and in a plastic bag on the grass verge at the ex partner's family home. She denied going there that day but the GPS on her car - installed by police to protect her - said otherwise. These stories raised police suspicions and caused them to reassess the rape claim and later charge the woman with making fake allegations.

The fake allegations left a family broken and their trust in police, prosecutors and the court shattered. Their voices burned with anger and frustration as they addressed the court at Thursday's sentence hearing. They blamed the woman - who avoided their glares from the witness box - but they were also brutal in their assessment of NSW and ACT police, lawyers and the judiciary and the justice system. Their son was not afforded the presumption of innocence, they accused. The victim’s dad stood as he delivered a devastating account of the miscarriage of justice they had suffered following the complex and calculated allegations levelled at them by the woman, once she learned police were a "gullible and willing accessory". The ending of a 36 year long marriage, some $300,000 in legal fees and associated costs of dealing with the fallout. The family had learned to keep diaries and photographs of their daily activities in constant vigilance, to wave at surveillance cameras and log every movement in case she sent yet another allegation their way. They reserved praise only for the detective who later picked up the case and saw it through to the end.

False allegations, particularly of rape, are easy to make and difficult to prosecute, prosecutor Trent Hickey told the packed ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday. This was a crime committed not just against one family. It was committed against the community and against real victims of assault and domestic violence. Fake allegations are a waste of valuable police time and resources, in this case the price was some 900 man hours and $43,000. Such prosecutions are so rare that before now there is not one example of a person in Canberra being sentenced for the crime.

Forensic psychiatrists diagnosed no mental illness in the woman, leaving Mr Hickey to conclude that she was motivated by greed and "plain old maliciousness". The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had no criminal history but her lawyers had little to offer in mitigation: references from family who continue to support her, and a plea of guilt though it had come years after the fact.

Before she was sentenced the woman stood in white pants, red floral top and flat tan shoes, with her dark hair pulled back into a neat bun. The gold chain with a cross around her neck, a gold watch and earrings had already been removed and handed to family. The charges were of public mischief, for the allegations against the family, and making a false allegation, of assault against her ex partner. Magistrate Beth Campbell sentenced the woman to just over three years in jail, setting a non-parole period of two years. The woman did not react.

"The administration of justice in the territory has been significantly damaged by the offender's conduct," Ms Campbell said. The magistrate also said the woman had exploited how seriously police and the justice system now took such allegations and at the same time had undermined the process and all victims of domestic violence. The family’s victim impact statements were moving and distressing. They were deeply and justifiably aggrieved. She told the family that their complaints of the failings of the legal system had not fallen on deaf ears;

Two years enough? Not even close.

The man's life was put in danger in prison. His father spent years of distress waiting for the call to say his son had died at the hands of some disgruntled prisoner. His parent's marriage was destroyed. The family is in hock up to their necks.

Two years paid vacation on the taxpayers buck.

Justice system? I can't see it.

She should be doing 10. And at the end of it forced to work to pay for his legal bills. And be put on a sex offenders register for life so that any other poor bastard who meets her has a fighting chance of getting out unscathed.

we saw the women coming forward against Kavanaugh as leftist liars willing to be total low lifes in order to bring a man down with no evidence. Probably part of 'women's' studies at unis I suspect.

I don't know how the man's parents, at their time of life, will ever recover financial. I would have thought up to 10 years would have been a fitting sentence.

And, to think this creature is one of those that the man-haters demand that we 'believe' because nobody makes up stories like that

I suspect he will sue the hell out of someone.