British woman in Hong Kong gets six years’ jail over blackmail case

A 26-year-old British woman has been sentenced to six years in jail in Hong Kong after a court found her guilty of blackmail and perverting the course of justice over a rape allegation that the judge found to be false.

According to the Hong Kong Free Press, Isabel Rose reported to police in February 2024 that she had been raped by a man at his apartment.

Rose has maintained throughout the case that she was raped.

Text messages became central to the case

Rose had arrived in Hong Kong on 31 Jan 2024 to visit a man she had met in Thailand.

The alleged rape took place at his apartment in the early hours of 1 Feb.

Messages exchanged between the pair afterwards later became a key part of the prosecution’s case.

“Are you annoyed I didn’t want to have sex?” Rose wrote to the man the following morning.

He replied that he was not, adding that he had been “impressed” by her “restraint”.

Later that day, Rose told him that he had “violated” her and that she had not wanted to have sex.

The man apologised, saying he had been slightly drun...