A 39-year-old woman who faked a pregnancy and made a false rape accusation during a harassment campaign has been given a five-year restraining order.

Lisa Marie Bashforth sent baby scans and photos of a baby in an incubator to her former lover and his wife, demanding money for baby items.

In court she pleaded guilty to conduct amounting to harassment and was put on probation for two years by magistrates.

Prosecuting advocate Roger Kane told the court that, in September 2020, Bashforth contacted police to report that she had been raped.

The allegation turned out to be untrue and Bashforth herself had already been given a police information notice (PIN), as a warning about her behaviour, in relation to the man against whom she made the false allegation.

The man’s wife then made a complaint of harassment against Bashforth.

Investigations found that Bashforth had been having a six-year secret affair with the man after meeting him online.

Bashforth, who lives at Clarke Street in Douglas, claimed that the man had ‘promised her the world’ and said that he would leave his wife and have a child with her.

After the relationship with Bashforth ended, she contacted his wife, pretending to be someone else, and told her about the affair, then said that the other woman was pregnant.

Bashforth then began emailing the woman’s business from her own email address and from fake ones.

She also posted comments on social media and the woman had to remove her business page as a result.

Bashforth also sent pictures of baby scans to the woman and began contacting the couple’s family, asking for the man’s blood type, making reference to the baby.

The man’s wife agreed that a paternity test could be taken once the baby was born and even said that her husband would provide support.

Bashforth also delivered handwritten letters to the couple and over several months demanded money for items for the unborn baby.

She was given around £500 to buy a pram, a cot and mattress.

Bashforth also sent photos of a baby in an incubator, but the couple then found out that she had fabricated the whole pregnancy.

Mr Kane said that the man’s wife had shown courage in reporting the harassment as it had led to quite embarrassing details being revealed.

The court heard that Bashforth had recently been sentenced to a 22-month suspended sentence at the Court of General Gaol Delivery for two counts of theft, after she had used the bank details of an ex-partner’s children to make 459 online purchases worth more than £6,400.

Mr Kane pointed out that the deemster at the higher court had made references to Bashforth’s ‘vulnerabilities’ and health issues mentioned in a psychiatric report.

Defence advocate David Reynolds said: ‘The woman has ended up being the victim due to the actions of her husband.

‘Ms Bashforth met him online in 2014. At the time they met on a website he told her he was unhappily married. She made it clear she wanted to have a baby from the outset.

‘It’s clear this has become an unhealthy obsession for her. She was so fixated on something, the amount of carnage along the way had become incidental to her.’

Mr Reynolds said that the man had not actually got married until 2015 and that there had been a ‘web of lies and deceit’, not only to Bashforth but to the man’s wife and family.

‘There was never any maliciousness towards the woman. It all came about because she wanted contact with him,’ said the advocate.

‘She understands what she did has caused a great deal of distress.’

Mr Reynolds asked the court to consider the culpability of the man.

Prosecutor Mr Kane said that the man was not present to defend himself and added: ‘This isn’t a court of morality. The culpability of the defendant is the sole issue.’

Magistrates sentenced Bashforth to the two-year probation order to run alongside the suspended sentence imposed at the Court of General Gaol Delivery.