A former NSW Police worker has been acquitted of making a false rape claim that saw her prison guard ex-boyfriend locked up in Goulburn jail for four months.
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But an ACT Supreme Court judge upheld her convictions for public mischief after she accused the man's family of burgling her home and threatening her with a knife.
Her case could now return to court to determine whether she's acquitted on a second false sexual assault allegation, or will face a retrial, after the judge partly dismissed an appeal.
The prison guard was accused of rape and serious assault against his ex-partner in the territory four years ago.
Their split was acrimonious and the pair was locked in a bitter property dispute when the allegations were made.
But a flawed police investigation into the allegations saw the man, who was a prison officer at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, charged and eventually remanded in custody.
The man was sent to Goulburn jail in an attempt to protect him from inmates who would target him due to his job.
He spent four months behind bars in the prison, and said he had invent back stories and constantly feared his fellow inmates would find out he was a screw.
Detectives brought on to the case grew suspicious when the woman began to make allegations against her ex-partner's family, saying they had harassed, intimidated, burgled and bugged her.
She was put under surveillance, which police alleged showed she invented claims against her ex's parents.
The prison guard also had an alibi for the alleged rape, which prosecutors were not told of immediately.
He was released and the charges were dropped.
His ex-partner instead faced trial.
She was found guilty in the ACT Magistrate's Court of making false accusations, prompting the woman to launch a challenge in the higher court.
Justice Richard Refshauge on Friday upheld that appeal in part.
He overturned the woman's conviction for making a false accusation in the first alleged sexual assault on a technicality, after he found issues with the way tenancy evidence linked to that claim was used.
He ordered she be acquitted.
The judge also set aside the conviction for the second false rape accusation due to problems with evidence which he said amounted to a miscarriage of justice.
But he is set to hear further submissions before he makes further orders about whether the woman should be acquitted or face a retrial on that allegation.
He dismissed the rest of the woman's appeal, upholding the three convictions for public mischief.
