A MAN whose estranged wife falsely accused him of raping her pleaded with a judge to stop her being jailed.

Michaela Lodge, 45 of Bedell Avenue, Black Notley, was jailed for four months at Chelmsford Crown Court and was told she had done a great disservice to genuine rape victims.

Essex Police spent 62 hours investigating Lodge’s allegation that husband Martin had raped her in the house they continued to share, when in fact she had instigated sex, the court heard.

In February, three months after Mr Lodge was arrested and held for 12 hours, Lodge wrote him a “confession” letter.

However, Mr Lodge supported his wife and appealed to the judge not to jail her.

She admitted perverting the course of justice and Judge Rodger Hayward Smith QC told her it was “a wicked allegation that was pre-planned to hasten his departure from your life”.

He added: “Every false allegation of rape increases the plight of women who have been genuine victims of rape in that it makes a genuine allegation harder to prove because juries know that false allegations are made from time to time.”

Prosecutor Andrew Jackson said after being arrested, Mr Lodge told officers they had gone to bed together and had sex at her invitation.

In January, Lodge made a witness statement maintaining he raped her, but said she did not want him prosecuted, the court heard.

Then the following month she gave son Daniel a letter to pass on to her husband, which said: “I am so sorry about what I have done to you. My head was and still is all over the place. I cannot deal with this anymore, I need to put it right. When we went to bed we both wanted to make love and the fact I lied to police about you raping me.

“My head was a mess with you pulling me one way and Pete the other. I just didn’t know what to do. I will say goodbye and hope one day you will be able to forgive me. I am so sorry.”

Mr Jackson said: “It seemed there had been another man involved with this defendant.”

When arrested for making the false allegation, Lodge admitted she had lied.

Mr Lodge was never charged with rape, but had to stay away from the family home as a bail condition.

The prosecution said Mr Lodge had to stay away from the family home for three months as a condition of his bail. He was never charged with rape.

Marc Brown, mitigating, said Lodge had not acted out of malice or revenge. “It was born more out of a confused desire to remove him from the picture,” he said.

“She accepts it was an outright lie.”

The judge read a letter from Mr Lodge which he described as “a magnanimous appeal for mercy”, not to send her immediately to prison.

Mr Lodge was not available for comment.