Anisah Ahmed, 33, handed discretionary life sentence after framing Iqbal Mohammed, 38, for rape, kidnap and stabbing
A female lawyer who falsely accused her married lover of rape and then arranged to be stabbed in a bid to frame him, has been handed a discretionary life sentence.
Anisah Ahmed, 33, embarked on an “evil” plot to destroy the life of fellow barrister Iqbal Mohammed, 38, who specialises in commercial law at St Philips Chambers, upon discovering he was married.
The couple met after she reached out to him on LinkedIn following his appearance on BBC legal documentary The Barristers, according to media reports. The series, which aired in 2008, followed the lives of bar students, including Mohammed, as they took their first steps into the profession. They began a six-month relationship in 2014.
Upon discovering Mohammed was married, Ahmed embarked on an elaborate campaign of revenge, with Mohammed comparing the ordeal to the 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction, Oxford Crown Court heard.
Her campaign began when she sent details of their affair to his wife and colleagues, and emailed his head of chambers demanding an investigation into his integrity. She then reportedly created a fake email account in Mohammed’s name and sent herself threatening messages.
As a result of the false allegations, Mohammed was arrested at work and taken to a police station where he was questioned for several hours. He was subsequently cleared when IT experts found 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 Mohammed, telling police he had repeatedly raped her.
Judge Michael Gedhill QC said: “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,” the judge continued. “In the short term it worked. Mr Mohammed was again arrested and interviewed.”
Continuing with the campaign, Ahmed recruited her ex-boyfriend Mustafa Hussain, 34, to bombard her with abusive messages and threatening calls from a phone purporting to belong to Mohammed.
As her trial for harassment approached, Ahmed became increasingly desperate and hatched a plan to stage her own kidnapping and stabbing. She is said to have asked Hussain to stab her three times and that she was to be attacked in the driver’s seat of her car from outside the door.
On 12 July 2015, police received an emergency call to attend a seriously injured woman in a car parked on the side of a road. As paramedics tended to a “horrific” wound to her thigh, she told them Mohammed was responsible for the kidnapping and slashing to her leg.
Even while injured, Ahmed did not stop her campaign against Mohammed. She persuaded accomplices to send her letters, with one claiming to have stabbed her on the instructions of Mohammed.
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.”
Judge Gedhill 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.”
Ahmed’s 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.”
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Gedhill, 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 admitted one charge of perverting the course of justice and one of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. She was handed a discretionary life sentence with a minimum term of four years, six months and ten days.
Her former boyfriend was given a two year prison sentence suspended for two years. He was ordered to undertake 150 hours unpaid work and pay £2,000 towards the prosecution costs.
Describing his ordeal, 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.
“Being arrested at my chambers was awful, it was really awful,” he said. “The police claimed they couldn’t find my address so a group of them turned up at my chambers with prior arrangement with the Head of my Chambers to arrest me.”
He added:
“The only small mercy that they showed was that they didn’t come in uniform and they didn’t put cuffs on me until I was in the car but they marched me out, it was such an incredibly bad experience. I hope this is the end of it. I have moved on hugely with my life, it is difficult to talk about it but I am hoping it is the end of it.”
