British woman, 26, is sentenced to six years in Hong Kong prison after reporting rape by a UK banker – who then accused her of blackmail

A 26-year-old British woman was sentenced to six years in a Hong Kong prison after reporting being raped by a British banker who later accused her of blackmailing him.

Isabel Rose, from Hackney, east London, traveled to Hong Kong in early 2024 to visit a man she had previously met while traveling in Thailand.

The man who reported to police that he had been sexually assaulted was arrested and later released without charge.

He was later charged with blackmail and perverting the course of public justice and spent the next two years effectively trapped in Hong Kong while out on bail.

At the hearing on March 3 this year, the judge said the prosecution had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Rose was guilty of both charges.

At the hearing on Wednesday, he was sentenced to five years in prison for blackmail and three years in prison for perverting the course of justice.

He will be sentenced to a total of six years in prison, to be served consecutively for one year.

In sentencing, judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching accused Rose of ‘bad behaviour’ and said it was ‘very clear’ that he had demanded the money.

Campaigners argued the case raised wider questions about how allegations of sexual assault are handled in Hong Kong, where very few reported rapes result in convictions.

Isabel Rose, from Hackney, east London, traveled to Hong Kong in early 2024 to visit a man she had previously met while traveling in Thailand.

The man who reported to police that he had been sexually assaulted was arrested and later released without charge.

“I don’t feel sad, I just feel numb,” Rose told the BBC after her conviction, adding that she felt the experience of reporting the allegation left her feeling like she had been “robbed” of her dignity.

She was awaiting sentencing at Tai Lam Prison, Hong Kong’s oldest maximum security women’s prison.

She sat crying on the bench of the Wanchai District Court in March when her legal team announced the verdict.

The 26-year-old actor grew up in south-east London before attending boarding school in Eastbourne.

He worked in creative marketing.

He left the UK in late 2023 to teach English in Vietnam.

During his trip to Thailand, he met a British banker and the two kept in touch via WhatsApp.

While Rose was on holiday in Goa, the man invited her to Hong Kong and said he would pay for her flight.

But 12 hours after arriving on January 31, 2024, she claims she was attacked and raped in his apartment.

The next day, he said, he offered her compensation, which she initially refused but later accepted.

She reported the alleged rape to Hong Kong police on February 3.

Authorities first arrested the man, but within a few hours they released him and arrested Rose.

He was accused of blackmail and later of perverting the course of public justice.

Police said there was not enough evidence to pursue the rape case.

Campaigners argued the case raised wider questions about how allegations of sexual assault are handled in Hong Kong, where very few rapes result in convictions.

Rose was released on bail after being charged but was prevented from working or leaving Hong Kong for two years while he awaited trial.

“I had gone to the police to report the rape and within about 30 hours there were six or seven police officers on my doorstep,” she told the BBC.

‘It takes a long time to report something like this and then be treated like a criminal. ‘I felt my dignity was taken away from me.’

Rose was not named when the case was heard in court.

The judge rejected Rose’s statements and noted inconsistencies in his allegations.

In his 300-page ruling, the judge accused Rose of using the romantic connection to manipulate the banker.

The judge said the woman demanded ever-increasing amounts of money and knowingly made a false claim to police, which led to her arrest.

WhatsApp messages sent between Rose and the man she accused, hours and days after the alleged attack, have surfaced.

In one message, Rose wrote: ‘You raped me last night, I didn’t want to have sex.’

He replied: ‘I’m really sorry, I was a bit drunk and misread your signals, that’s no excuse and I know it doesn’t make it any better.’

The man told the court he understood it as an ’emotional violation’ and not rape.

He claimed that he read the message in two parts.

The court heard Rose later sought monetary compensation.

‘Can you send me the money you owe,’ he wrote in one message.

He later transferred £5,000 to Rose.

He then demanded a further £5,000 as he tried to send it but was stopped due to bank cheques.

Rose claimed the money was compensation he offered for flights, accommodation and medical expenses.

He then sent a message saying: ‘You gave me 10 percent of the debt. 100 percent of my soul is gone.’

The judge accused Rose of demanding £100,000 and threatening to go to the police; Rose denied the allegations in court.

The prosecution said the payments amounted to blackmail and that the rape report she gave to the police was false.

In other WhatsApp messages, the banker described an experience in which a former partner asked him to fantasize about non-consensual sex.

The judge described Rose’s behavior before and after the allegation as ‘entirely inconsistent with rape’.

But according to women’s rights groups, trauma responses to violence are not what the public, police or courts expect.

“Trauma does not follow a script,” said Ngozi Fulani of Sistah Space, a London-based charity that supports women of African and Caribbean heritage affected by domestic and sexual abuse.

‘After sexual violence, survivors send normal-sounding messages. They can stay in touch. They minimize it. “They struggle to give coherent explanations in their retelling of events,” he told the BBC.

Campaigners say the case raises wider questions about how sexual assault allegations are handled in Hong Kong, where less than half of rape victims report their cases to police, according to sexual violence crisis center Rainlily.

Hong Kong is currently in the process of reforming its sexual offenses laws, many of which have remained unchanged since the 1970s.

This year, the government plans to hold a meeting with public participation on law reform.

Rose said there were difficulties reporting the allegation.

He said he had to repeat the case several times to several different officers over the course of 12 hours, and his statement was not recorded.

He said that there was no translator and forensic examinations were performed by a male doctor.

The results later proved inconclusive; neither proved nor disproved the alleged rape.

After his arrest, Rose said, he was transported to a police cell and then to the hospital, where he was handcuffed to a bed.

He said he was told to take medication and was threatened with transfer to a mental hospital.

Rose’s mother, Aysha Bell, returned to London in 2024 to report the alleged rape to the Metropolitan Police.

Under UK law, police can investigate some sexual offenses committed by British citizens abroad.

The Met said in a statement to the BBC that “investigations are ongoing”.

Police added: ‘Currently, due to lack of jurisdiction in the relevant country, the Met Police are unable to carry out relevant investigations until the victim returns to the UK.’