A British woman has been sentenced to six years in Hong Kong’s oldest maximum-security women’s prison after a court found she fabricated a rape allegation and tried to extort £100,000 from the banker she accused.
Isabel Rose, 26, from Hackney in east London, flew to Hong Kong on 31 January 2024 to visit a British banker — identified only as X — after meeting him in Thailand a month earlier. The following morning, she wrote on WhatsApp: “You violated me last night, I didn’t wanna have sex.” He replied: “I’m really deeply sorry, I was slightly drunk and I misread your signals.” The man later backtracked in court, claiming he misunderstood the word “violated” as emotional rather than sexual.
“British woman Isabel Rose, 26, jailed for six years in Hong Kong for blackmail and perverting justice after false rape claim.”
Days later, Rose escalated her demands. She messaged X: “Send me the right amount you owe me for everything. Think about that. Think carefully.” He transferred £5,000 and tried to send another £5,000. Rose then wrote: “You’ve given 10% of what I’m owed. 100% of my soul gone.” X responded: “But I don’t have 100k, I have no way of paying you that.”
On 3 February 2024, Rose reported the rape to police. X was arrested and questioned, but released without charge. The following day Rose was arrested. Prosecutors argued she had fabricated the allegation to extort money. She denied the charges and has always maintained her innocence.
In March 2026, Rose was convicted of blackmail and perverting the course of public justice. On Wednesday, District Court Judge Adriana Tse sentenced her to five years for blackmail and three years for perverting justice, with one year to run consecutively — a total of six years. Tse described X as an “honest, credible and reliable witness” and Rose as “dishonest, uncredible and unreliable”. The judge said Rose had “taken advantage of his kindness, naivety, friendship and romantic interest”.
Rose’s lawyer argued for leniency based on her clean criminal record and status as a foreigner, but Tse rejected the plea, noting that “good character is mere absence of convictions” and there was “nothing exemplary” about her. For the two years before trial, Rose was unable to work or leave Hong Kong.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the force takes reports of this nature “extremely seriously” but has been “unable to pursue relevant lines of enquiry due to a lack of jurisdiction”. Rose has been sent to Tai Lam Correctional Institution, Hong Kong’s oldest maximum-security women’s prison.
The case has drawn international attention to the consequences when cross-border sexual assault allegations are found to have been fabricated.