CARNAL NATION

A 21-year-old waitress lost her job at the Coq D'Argent restaurant in London. She had apparently not been pulling her weight and was taking too much time off. Embarrassed and afraid to tell her family the real reason behind her sudden unemployment, Gema Revelles told her sister—and then the police—that the restaurant manager Gerhard Jacobs had sexually assaulted her. She recounted a harrowing tale of Jacobs forcing her to her knees and unbuttoning his pants. She said she was able to fight him off by punching him in the stomach and then fleeing. It would have been a terrifying experience if it had actually happened. But it didn't. She made the whole thing up. Her lie might well have succeeded, too, except for one crucial fact: Jacobs is openly gay.

As the police began to investigate, more and more inconsistencies in Revelles's story began to surface. Meanwhile, Jacobs was both shocked and distraught at the accusation. He repeatedly told police, ''Everyone knows that I'm gay at work and elsewhere.'' Apparently, not everyone. The police then questioned two other waitresses that Revelles claimed to have told of the assault. They had never heard anything about it. Finally, they consulted the tape from the closed-circuit video cameras in the restaurant. No assault was on the visual record. Police arrested Revelles.

At her trial, Judge Stephen Robbins took a very stern view of Revelles's actions, saying, "People who make false sexual accusations and cry rape, or, as in your case, a serious sexual assault, leading to individuals being questioned by police and/or arrested and sometimes remanded in custody, may expect to receive immediate custodial sentences because these sort of allegations are all too easy to make and very difficult to refute." He continued, "I have come to the conclusion my public duty requires me to send you immediately to prison." And that's exactly where she went, sentenced to 9 months for her lies and cowardice.