A woman who used sex chatrooms to try to arrange the ‘stranger rape’ of a former work colleague has been jailed for six years.
Joanne Berry, 30, posed as the woman online and invited a man to come to her house and attack her, but the plan failed.
Berry had recently lost her temporary job after displaying “increasingly erratic behaviour” at work, and a judge said she may have held the victim responsible.
Aggrieved, the university-educated mother of one resolved to exact some form of “revenge or retribution”.
She began contacting a man online over a period of time, pretending that she enjoyed “rape scenarios” and engaging in role play.
Eventually she gave him her ex-colleagues address, telling him it was her own, and persuaded him to knock on the door and rape her.
The unwitting man tried to barge his way in to the woman’s home to act out the rape, but aborted the plan after realising he had been set up.
Berry, of Grove Park, south-east London, was convicted in May of putting a person in fear of violence in 2012.
![Joanne Berry arrives at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent [Photo Credit: PA]](https://www.thetrentonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Joanne-Berry_3001278b-The-Trent.jpg)
Joanne Berry arrives at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent [Photo Credit: PA]
Judge Griffith-Jones said the combination of direct and circumstantial evidence against Berry at her trial was “compelling and the jury was not fooled”, and described her behaviour as “wicked and calculating”.
He went on: “That (the victim) was not in fact raped or seriously sexually assaulted is entirely fortuitous.
“That is plainly what you intended. As it is, however, the trauma inflicted upon her was, as can only be imagined, very substantial indeed.”
Part of a victim impact statement was read out at court in which the victim described how the ordeal had left her suffering panic attacks.
She now refuses to sit out in the garden on her own because she fears men may force their way in, and she panics when someone knocks on her door.
The judge said the man involved should also not be forgotten as he was “duped” into acting in a way which could have had repercussions for him.
In mitigation, defence counsel James Manning said Berry – who has one previous conviction for shoplifting in 2004 – was of good character up until now.
She had also not committed any offences while on bail and she was a woman educated to degree level who had a child.
Mr Manning told the court: “This is an offence which is highly out of character for the defendant.”
Berry remained impassive as she was jailed, and told she must sign the sex offenders register indefinitely and may be barred from working with children.
