A woman who falsely accused her fiance of rape told a police investigator she knew for certain he was the man who attacked her.
Daniel Jones, 31, spent four-and-a-half months in Goulburn prison, 195km south-west of Sydney, in 2014 after his then fiancee Sarah Jane Parkinson made 32 horrific allegations against him.
In a police interview that same year, Parkinson told Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander she was convinced Mr Jones had committed the vile act against her.
‘Hand on my heart that was Daniel, I know it was Daniel, I recognised him,’ she said.
Daniel Jones, 31, (pictured) spent four and a half months in Goulburn prison, 195km south-west of Sydney, in 2014 when his ex-fiancee accused him of rape
Mr Jones was not the first man Parkinson (pictured) accused of rape. She alleged a Canberra man, the father of her best friend at the time, also sexually assaulted her
‘I think it was just sheer desperation, like it’s been a rough few years with Daniel.’
Detective Sergeant Alexander said she saw photos of Parkinson on her phone looking ‘very happy’ while Mr Jones was in prison.
‘I found that very difficult, that a person could be so happy while someone else is in jail,’ she said.
Detective Sergeant Alexander proved Parkinson to be a compulsive liar, beginning with a timestamped social media photo that showed he wasn’t at the scene of what his fiancee claimed was a brutal sexual assault.
Canberra man Daniel Jones (left) thought Sarah Jane Parkinson (right) was the love of his life when they met in 2011
Mr Jones was 25 when he met 20-year-old Parkinson in Canberra in 2011.
In a whirlwind romance, the young couple quickly made plans to marry and Mr Jones even built a house so they could live together.
‘She was cute and innocent, a bit of old-fashioned, and she was always dressed and frocks she always wore nice dresses and all that kind of thing,’ Mr Jones told 60 Minutes of his ex-fiance.
Shortly after moving in together, Mr Jones’ life began to fall apart at the hands of the woman he thought was the love of his life.
Parkinson got a job at Queanbeyan Police as a clerical assistant and began feeding her colleagues lies about her partner.
The young woman, who the Jones’ described as ‘clumsy’, would turn up to work with self-inflicted bruises and marks.
Almost two years into their relationship, Mr Jones was called into Queanbeyan Police Station and handed an Apprehensive Violence Order amid allegations he was assaulting Parkinson.
Mr Jones confronted Parkinson and believed her reassurances that her colleagues were being over-protective.
Mr Jones’ father Ian said he also confronted Parkinson and she told him the allegations were false and that couple were madly in love.
Ian said he began to suspect the family had let a ‘rat’ into their home.
The couple continued to live together, but Mr Jones became increasingly concerned his partner was cheating on him with a policeman.
On March 21 2014, Mr Jones was arrested for raping Parkinson despite this picture proving he was somewhere else at the time of the alleged assault
The affair came to light when Mr Jones questioned Parkinson and their relationship came to an end in November 2013.
‘I was crushed… I’d just built a house. She’d moved in with me, everything was going well, I had a good career, my dream car I always wanted. Everything was going right and in that instant everything just went to s***.’
Days after their break up, Parkinson ramped up her allegations against Mr Jones, accusing him of urinating on her, locking her outside of their home in the rain and hitting her in the face with a plank of wood.
‘You’ve come from meeting this innocent, sweet girl to this premeditated monster who is capable of making all these allegations against you without a care in the world,’ Mr Jones said.
Mr Jones pictured with his parents Michelle and Ian who went to battle for their son amid the false accusations
On Christmas Eve 2013, Mr Jones was finishing his shift as a prison officer when he was arrested in front of his colleagues and hit with 32 charges related to domestic violence.
Mr Jones was released on strict bail conditions and moved back in with his parents – while Parkinson stayed in the former couples’ home with her new lover and his three children.
But on March 21, 2014, police arrived at the Jones’ home without warning and he was arrested.
This time Parkinson alleged her former partner had raped her – despite photographic evidence proving otherwise.
Mr Jones’ sister-in-law had taken a photo of Mr Jones holding his baby nephew at the time of the supposed assault.
The information attached to the photo included a time stamp and Mr Jones’ location.
Despite the evidence, Mr Jones was sent to Goulburn’s supermax while his devastated parents prepared for the battle of their lives.
Ian said the family were put into fight mode as they were up against the police and incurring huge legal costs.
The family were fearful Mr Jones could spend over a decade in prison – until Detective Sergeant Alexander stepped in.
Detective Sergeant Alexander, from the ACT criminal unit, quickly noticed a number of holes in Parkinson’s claims and evidence and begun to thoroughly investigate her.
‘As far as I was concerned and what the evidence showed is [Mr Jones] wasn’t responsible for any of it. It didn’t happen,’ she said.
Mr Jones was sent to Goulburn’s supermax while his devastated parents prepared for the battle of their lives
Parkinson made allegations the Jones family were harassing her, including claims her house was broken into and she was attacked by a man wielding a knife.
A police warrant at Parkinson’s home matched the knife from the alleged attack to her own knife set.
Parkinson alleged her iPad was stolen when her house was robbed and said she had tracked it to the Jones’ house.
But a GPS tracker in her vehicle found she made the journey to the property, dumping the device outside the Jones home.
Detective Sergeant Alexander said it was clear Parkinson had lied – and it made her question what else she had been dishonest about.
The ACT Department of Public Prosecutions called an emergency bail hearing and Mr Jones was released from jail.
Mr Jones’ mum Michelle described Detective Sergeant Alexander as a ‘Godsend’ and Ian said his son would probably still be in jail without her.
Ian said the family were put into fight mode as they were up against the police and incurring huge legal costs
The family became increasingly fearful Mr Jones could spend over a decade in prison – until Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander came to save the day
Parkinson had made false allegations of rape before.
Canberra man Keith Lewis was wrongly accused of sexually assaulting Parkinson a decade ago.
Lewis’ daughter Sarah was best friends with Parkinson at the time the false allegations were made.
An emotional Sarah questioned why someone so trusted in her life would lie about something so serious.
She said that people at her school falsely thought her father was a rapist for ten years.
Mr Lewis was never charged over the allegations as there was no case, but the family suffered emotional torment at the hands of Parkinson.
‘I think she’s a lying, vindictive, cancerous human who should not be around other people at all,’ Mr Jones said.
Parkinson was jailed for three years and one month.
During sentencing magistrate Beth Campbell described as ‘incomprehensible, wicked behaviour’, The Australian reported.
Her crime has also been described as a mockery of genuine domestic and sexual violence victims.
Mr Jones has now found love again, but his family they are still struggling after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees.
Emma Holsty, who is related to Mr Jones, said the family is attempting to recover since losing ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ it cost in legal fees to fight for his innocence and freedom.
‘That is before any compensation for the damage she (his ex-fiancée) caused for my cousin and his immediate family – now torn apart,’ she wrote on Facebook.
‘It really has been a six year nightmare that will never be repaired.’
Mr Jones has now found love again, but his family say his family are still struggling after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees
A GoFundMe page was set up to raise money for the family.
‘Last week the perpetrator of this crime, Sarah Jane Parkinson, was sent to prison for three years for false rape accusations and faking a crime scene,’ the page, posted in January says.
‘This followed five years of Parkinson’s vicious attempts to destroy Dan, her ex-fiancé, and his family, with the help of crooked cops.’
‘Her campaign led to Dan spending four months wrongly imprisoned and his parents blowing their life savings, spending over $300,000 trying to protect their son.’
The page has raised more than $20,000.