A woman who falsely accused 10 men of raping her has had her prison sentence increased by two-and-a-half years after the Court of Appeal ruled her original term was "unduly lenient".

Stacey Sharples, 31, made false reports causing men to be held in custody at police stations, lose jobs and relationships, and be separated from their children.

She met the men from Greater Manchester on Facebook and dating apps Plenty of Fish and Badoo between 2013 and 2019, when she was aged between 18 and 24.

Sharples, who admitted 10 counts of perverting the course of justice, was originally jailed for four-and-a-half years, but judges increased the term to seven years.

The Attorney General had referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal, after Sharples was jailed at Bolton Crown Court in March.

An estimated 264 hours of police time and about £50,000 were wasted in months-long investigations, the court heard.

Sharples repeated her allegations in lengthy video-recorded interviews but police found many inconsistencies in her accounts.

Sharples, from Farnworth in Bolton, appeared at the London court earlier via video link from HMP Styal in Cheshire.

Lord Justice Popplewell, sitting with Mr Justice Linden and Mrs Justice Hill, said: "The allegations were of extremely serious conduct all involving rape, and in some cases multiple rapes with serious violence and threats.

"Had the victims been convicted, their sentences would in total have been very lengthy indeed."

He said that false rape allegations undermined real victims of rape and had a serious effect "on the minds of the public who may be called as jurors, which may cause doubts in the mind where none should exist".

The judge said Sharples "lured" one victim to a shop so he could be arrested in public and told another "watch what happens now" after he refused her advances.

Julia Faure Walker, representing the Attorney General, said the original sentence was not increased enough to reflect the number of victims.

She said: "This case clearly falls into the category of causing not just some distress or impact, but serious distress or impact.

"The vast majority were arrested, spent time in custody and remained under investigation for months."

Hunter Gray, representing Sharples, said the sentence had been reduced due to Sharples' mental health and lack of intellect – which the judge decided constituted a learning disability.

He said Sharples "accepts responsibility" but "still struggles to understand why she did what she did".

During the original sentencing, the judge had described Sharples as a "sexual predator" who "bombarded" the men with "out of proportion" expressions of love and if they did not respond she reported them for rape.

Sharples did have consensual sex with five of the men, one in the homeless hostel where she was living, before she accused them of rape.

Her first offence, committed when she was 18, involved a false claim that a 16-year-old boy had threatened her with a knife and forced her to perform oral sex.

Sharples, who falsely claimed one victim was her boyfriend, told a psychiatrist she did not know why she stopped her offending but said it coincided with the Covid pandemic and her meeting her current partner in 2022.