A woman who claimed she was a nurse was jailed yesterday for making false allegations of rape against three men.

Christina Dallison, 27, from Woodgate, Leicester, was sentenced to two years in prison.

She approached one of the men in a job centre in Leicester and told him she was a nurse, but later confessed she was an escort.

All of the victims, men in their 30s and 40s, had to live for several months with the rape allegations hanging over them, Leicester Crown Court was told.

Sentencing Ms Dallison for two counts of acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice, Judge Michael Fowler told her: "Your acts... are a betrayal of the victims of genuine rape. They put in the minds of people that false allegations (of rape) are in some way commonplace. We know they are not."

Ms Dallison pleaded guilty to both counts on July 1.

She made the first false rape allegation against volunteer worker Carl Brown, from Manchester, whom she met over the internet in early 2004.

The two of them went on a date which ended with consensual sexual activity, prosecutor Rosa Dean told the court.

The next day Ms Dallison asked Mr Brown, who was in his early 30s, to drive her to Manchester Bury but he refused.

A few days later she alleged to the police that she had met up with Mr Brown on a second occasion and that he had raped her a number of times.

Mr Brown was arrested on January 21 2004 and released on police bail but it was not until June that year that he was told he would not be prosecuted.

In 2008, Ms Dallison approached a man in his 40s, Fabian Wallace, at a job centre and told him she was a nurse.