'Fatal Attraction' barrister lied about rape and arranged to be stabbed to set up married lover

A barrister who falsely accused her married lover of rape and then arranged to be stabbed in order to frame him, has been jailed for life.

Anisah Ahmed, 33, embarked on a twisted plot to destroy fellow lawyer Iqbal Mohammed's life, after discovering he was married in 2014.

The couple met after she contacted him when he appeared in a BBC documentary called The Barristers and they began an intimate relationship.

But on realising she had been betrayed she set about getting revenge, with Mr Mohammed claiming he was left feeling like the Michael Douglas character in the film Fatal Attraction.

Her campaign started when she sent details of their affair to his wife and colleagues and demanded his legal chambers launch an investigation into his integrity.

She then created a fake email account in Mr Mohammed's name and sent threatening messages to herself.

As a result of the false allegations, Mr Mohammed was arrested in front of his colleagues and taken to a police station where he was questioned for several hours.

He was subsequently cleared when IT experts discovered that the emails had been falsified and Ahmed was arrested on suspicion of harassment.

Despite being charged with the offence, Ahmed escalated her campaign against her former lover, telling police that he had repeatedly raped her.

Oxford Crown Court was told: "Her complaint was detailed and convincing, even though it was completely false.

"Her purpose was twofold - revenge and to divert the police attention away from herself and back onto Mr Mohammed. In the short term it worked. Mr Mohammed was again arrested and interviewed."

Continuing with the campaign, Ahmed then recruited her ex-boyfriend Mustafa Hussain, to start bombarding her with abusive messages from a phone purporting to belong to Mr Mohammed.

As her harassment trial approached, Ahmed became increasingly desperate and hatched a plan to stage her own kidnapping and stabbing.

She asked Hussain to stab her three times and as she sat in the driver's seat of her car.

On July 12 2015, the police received an emergency call to attend a seriously injured woman in a car parked on the side of a road.

As paramedics treated an "horrific" wound to her thigh, she told them Mr Mohammed was the person responsible for kidnapping and slashing.

While recovering from her injuries she then persuaded accomplices to send her letters claiming to be from the person Mr Mohammed had hired to attack her.

Prosecuting counsel Iestyn Morgan told the court: "It was a complex and baroque conspiracy to convince the police that Mr Mohammed was pursuing her, threatening her, arranging others to threaten her, threatening to kill her and inflict really serious violence on her."

Sentencing her, Judge Michael Gedhill QC, said: "The effect on Mr Mohammed can hardly be overstated. He saw his career, livelihood and family life disintegrating before his eyes, he even thought of taking his own life."

Her defence barrister, Balraj Bhatia QC said: "She has an inability to cope with rejection and feelings of betrayal but it is likely this behaviour is a coping mechanism as a result of her diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder.

Ahmed admitted one charge of perverting the course of justice and one of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Wearing a religious headdress, Ahmed, was given a discretionary life sentence with a minimum term of four years, six months and 10 days.

The judge said the fact she had been called to the Bar had been an aggravating factor in his sentencing.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Gledhill said: "This case clearly involved very careful planning to destroy the personal and professional life of the victim. The lengths you went to, to exact revenge on Mr Mohammed were almost beyond belief.

"Your actions, Ms Ahmed, were malicious, even evil. You persisted with them over a prolonged period of time and you recruited Hussain and others to assist you.

"False allegations can have dreadful consequences on an innocent person who has committed no crime. Being wrongly accused of harassment is serious enough. But accusing him of rape is in quite another category."

Ahmed's former boyfriend, Mustafa Hussain, was given a two year prison sentence suspended for two years.

Describing his ordeal, Mr Mohammed said: “I can't put into words what it was like. I saw Fatal Attraction a couple of years ago but I couldn't watch it because it was just like what happened to me, it was like the life that I lived.”

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo News UK