Courtney Ireland-Ainsworth is jailed for 10 months at Liverpool Crown Court after lying to police over her ex-boyfriend
A ‘toxic’ ex-girlfriend who threatened herself with a fake Instagram account to shut down an innocent man has been jailed for 10 months.
Courtney Ireland-Ainsworth created 30 false profiles, then told police that her former partner, Louis Jolly, was behind the ‘hateful’ messages she sent.
The DHL employee, who was 19 at the time, reportedly reported threatening him with a knife and warned: ‘He has a blade in his chest.’
She gave 10 police statements, claiming that Mr Jolly was harassing and stalking her, which led to her being arrested six times and spending 81 hours in custody, including an overnight remand.
Mr. Jolly was arrested six times, charged with assault and stalking, given a predator protection order, a home curfew with an electronic tag, and even his job. She was gone too.
Recorder Ian Harris told TODAY Ireland-Ainsworth: ‘You’ve created an entirely fictional but superficially believable web of toxic deceit in five months.’
Mr Jolly, 22, said they were together for two years but split on ‘ok terms’ in October 2019, before Ireland-Ainsworth began seeing a new boyfriend, a man named Declan Rice.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Ireland-Ainsworth, now 20, Brekendale, Runcorn, then began his ‘deliberate and malicious lie’.
Prosecutor Paul Blasberry said he made several calls to police from July 15 to December 13, 2020, and provided screenshots of messages and the names of Instagram accounts attributed to his victim.
The court heard Ireland-Ainsworth alleged that Mr Jolly called her from withheld numbers, followed her, her friends and her new partner, filmed her walking down the street and sent her verbal and physical video. abused her and made false claims that she was using cocaine. ,
He also told the police that he barged into her house, put a brick on the window of her naan and threatened to stab her and her lover.
Recorder Harris said: ‘You said the chase got worse after the arrest.
‘You provided photos of damage to property and yourself, where you said he stabbed you with a Stanley knife, and you had a scar on your chest.’
In her fourth statement on 21 October, she claimed she had told Mr Rice online: ‘Wait until I see him, he is with the blade in his chest at the moment.’
She was jailed for 10 months and ordered a 10-year ban at Liverpool Crown Court, with a judge telling her she perpetuated in a ‘deliberate and malicious lie’, thereby wasting police time.
Ireland-Ainsworth’s mother called police on 15 November and said Mr Jolly had threatened to stab her online.
Detectives requested data from Facebook, which owns Instagram, but Mr Blasberry said ‘it took a while to release this data to police’.
Mr Jolly was struck with an interim stalking protection order on 4 December, and was granted bail every day between 7 pm and 7 am with an electronically tagged home curfew for six weeks.
Ireland-Ainsworth accused her of violating the order and her mother called the police on 13 December to report it.
However, when police found data from Facebook, it showed at least 17 Instagram accounts created using two Ireland-Ainsworth email addresses and IP addresses linked to his home and mobile phone.
He was arrested and interviewed on 12 December 2020, when he confessed, before the Crown Prosecution Service stopped pursuing and assaulting Mr Jolly.
Mr Blasberry said: ‘He tried to downplay what he did during that interview. He finally accepted it.
‘She said that her ex-boyfriend Mr. Jolly was harassing her, but he sent false messages to the police to make the police believe they would take it seriously.’
Court to hear Ireland-Ainsworth setting up more than 30 fake Instagram accounts online
Ireland-Ainsworth, who had previously been found not guilty, admitted to perverting the course of justice.
Recorder Harris noted in a pre-sentence report that she was ‘blaming the victim in some cases’, but has now dropped those claims.
Jim Smith defended that his client was 19 at the time, immature and suffering from ‘complicated’ post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Mr Smith said PTSD resulted from ‘severe trauma’ when Ireland-Ainsworth was a child, and a probation officer said it affected his decision-making.
Mr Smith said Ireland-Ainsworth worked in the DHL supply chain and was a “very respected member of that team” and was “loved and respected” by family and friends.
He suggested that his personal difficulties amounted to ‘extraordinary circumstances’ and that the judge could release him from prison.
Mr Smith concluded: ‘The defendant and his family are truly sorry for what happened in this case.’
Recorder Harris told Ireland-Ainsworth that he was going to send her to prison, as she started crying on the dock.
He said his allegations were “all untrue” having an “absolutely shattering effect” on the victim and her family.
The judge said: ‘He has become the shell of the man he used to be.’
Recorder Harris told Ireland-Ainsworth: ‘You included your boyfriend, Declan Rice, and your mother and grandmother … you included them in your dishonesty in my decision to give a statement to the police.’
He continued: ‘You made a list of claims to have put Mr Jolly in serious trouble – which counts for criminal sanctions and loss of his liberty.
‘I think a lot of thought and planning was put into this criminal enterprise, which had the hallmarks of sophistication and finesse about it.
‘Even after you were arrested and charged, you continued to make derogatory statements against Mr. Jolly.’
Recorder Harris said: ‘In the pre-sentence report you admitted to messaging yourself with 20 to 30 fake Instagram accounts that you set up.
‘ You said, I said, “You wanted to hurt Mr. Jolly and you didn’t see that your actions were selfish”.
‘You engaged in a deliberate and malicious lie for five months. You wasted the time and resources of the police…
‘You caused untold emotional damage to a completely innocent man and his family. He had to suffer for months.
Recorder Harris commuted Ireland-Ainsworth’s sentence due to mental health difficulties and gave him full credit for his guilty plea.
Ordering a 10-month ban and a 10-year ban, he said: ‘I express my deepest condolences to the Jolly family for what they have suffered at your hands.’