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Courtney Ireland-Ainsworth also showed police a photo of what she claimed was a scar on her chest inflicted by Lewis Jolly with a “Stanley knife”. Mr Jolly ended up being arrested six times and spent 81 hours in custody, eventually being charged with stalking offences and assaults. His house was also searched by police.

But Ireland-Ainsworth, then 18, was exposed when Instagram’s owners Facebook revealed the false profiles were in fact linked to her own email accounts and IP addresses.

She admitted perverting the course of justice and was yesterday sentenced to 10 months in a young offenders institution. A 10-year restraining order was also imposed at Liverpool Crown Court to protect Mr Jolly who, since the ordeal, has felt suicidal, required counselling and has been prescribed antidepressants.

The court heard the couple dated for two years but they split in October 2019 on “okay terms”. 

When she started seeing a new partner, he said “there were no bad feelings between us”, but in September 2020, she made the first of 10 false police statements.

Mr Jolly, then 20, told the court he was charged with stalking offences and assaults and, on one occasion, was denied bail.

The victim, who is now 22, said being under investigation for four months was “the worst experience of my life,” Liverpool Echo reports.

He told the court: “I was charged with stalking offences and assaults that I had not committed. I was denied bail on one occasion and put before the court the next morning.

“I felt like I was very close to being remanded into custody for a crime I had not committed.”

Police repeatedly turned up at his family’s home in the early hours of the morning to arrest him and, when officers searched the property, they seized two of his mobile phones.

Mr Jolly continued: “In between each arrest I lived in a constant state of anxiety, thinking that the police were going to arrive at any minute and arrest me again.

“I told police that I wasn’t behind these Instagram accounts and that I felt like I was being set up, but yet each time Ainsworth reported something, I was arrested again.

“I felt powerless and didn’t know how to protect myself from these allegations. I felt frustrated as it felt like no one was listening to me.

“At one stage, I asked the police to install CCTV in my address and to fit a GPS tracker to me, in an effort to prove my innocence.

“After my second mobile phone was seized by police, I decided not to get another one and no longer accessed social media or the internet. Other than going to work and occasionally going fishing, I stopped going out.

“I spent most of my time at home with my mum, so that I had an alibi for any future allegations.”

Ireland-Ainsworth, from Runcorn, Cheshire, told police her former partner was stalking and harassing her, had verbally and physically abused her, put a brick through her grandmother’s window, and threatened to stab her and her new boyfriend.

Mr Jolly said repeatedly getting arrested and detained in custody for questioning cost him his job.

He said: “This was frustrating for my employer. I explained to him that the allegations were malicious and that I hadn’t done anything wrong and at first he was understanding, but in the end he had to let me go as I was repeatedly missing work and having to attend court hearings.”

The victim said he lost earnings and was left out of pocket due to court costs and solicitor fees.

The experience had a “massive effect” on his physical and mental health, as he battled stress.

He said: “I lost weight as a result of this. It was affecting my sleep – I couldn’t relax. I found that I struggled to sleep and when I could, it was broken.

“I started drinking more in an effort to help relax me and help me sleep. I found myself feeling very emotional at times and would break down crying.

“I’ve suffered panic attacks. I found that I was agitated and jumpy, particularly at night, and if someone knocked on the front door.

“I found that when I was working, I couldn’t concentrate, my mind was elsewhere and this was affecting my work.

“At my lowest point I felt like life wasn’t worth living and thought to myself that I’d be better off dead.”

Mr Jolly went to see his GP, who prescribed antidepressants, and he was referred for counselling.

He said the experience left him with “no desire to be in a relationship”, it had a “huge effect” on his social life as he withdrew from friends and had no way of contacting them without a phone. He said he didn’t like to go out in case he saw Ainsworth because he feared she might make further accusations against him.

As her lies continued, he was hit with stringent bail conditions, including a home curfew from 7pm to 7am daily.

Mr Jolly said: “I felt ashamed and embarrassed because I had a stalking protection order against me and was having to walk around with a tag on my ankle.

“It was embarrassing having the police turning up on so many occasions to arrest me. I found that my neighbours started to look at me differently because of how many times the police have taken me away.

“Having the stalking protection order against me and having to go to court in relation to this made me feel like a weirdo when I hadn’t done what was alleged.

“For months my mum was keeping a record of my movements so that she could tell the police where I had been if I was arrested.

“It was arranged that a friend would pick me up from home and drop me off at work so that I would always have an alibi for where I’d been and what I’d been doing.”

Mr Jolly said his self-esteem was rocked, he became scared of police, and constantly feared his next arrest.

“As a grown adult this was very embarrassing and affected my self-esteem.”

He said the ordeal also impacted on his family, including his then 15-year-old brother, and sister, aged nine, who live with him and his mum, after he received threats and one of their windows was smashed.

Mr Jolly said: “Since then, my sister has been on pins, she wouldn’t sleep in her own bed.

“I share a bedroom with my brother and every time the police arrested me our bedroom was searched, which invaded his private space.

“He was studying for his GCSEs at the time and was repeatedly woken up in the night when the police were arresting me and made to leave the bedroom while the police searched it.

“My mum has been off work with stress and anxiety – all linked to what I’ve been through. My mum, brother and sister have also received counselling.

“My dad had to take time away from his business to accompany me at court. This had a knock on effect and put him under financial pressure.

“The consequences of Ainsworth’s false allegations in this case really can’t be underestimated.”

Recorder Ian Harris said Ireland-Ainsworth had left her victim “a shell of the man he used to be”.

He noted how in a pre-sentence report, she said she “wanted to hurt” Mr Jolly and didn’t see that her actions were selfish.

He said: “You created an entirely fictional but superficially credible web of poisonous deceit for over five months.”

Ireland-Ainsworth said she suffered PTSD as a result of the breakdown of their relationship.

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