When Ruth walked into a police station to allege she had been raped by her partner, she did not think that she would end up in the dock.

She would later be accused by police of making a false rape allegation, charged and put on trial. It led to a years-long struggle to clear her name, before she was eventually acquitted.

Ruth, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, reported the alleged rape in early 2020 - seven months after she and the man, a police officer, had split up. The day of the alleged assault was the last time the pair had seen each other.

"I felt if I didn't report it, I couldn't carry on with my life anymore," Ruth tells File on 4 Investigates.

While the accused man was not charged with a crime, Ruth faced an accusation of perverting the course of justice, an offence that carries a maximum life jail term.

In the UK, only an "extremely small number" of people every year are prosecuted for making false rape claims, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The latest official CPS figures, from more than a decade ago, show there were 5,651 prosecutions for rape in England and Wales over a 17-month period in 2011-12 - compared with 35 prosecutions for making false allegations of rape. Around the same time, CPS guidelines were updated, leading to a drop in false rape prosecutions.

Someone falsely accused of rape before a trial is likely to spend time in a police cell or even prison. If they are charged, their name will normally be made public....

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