A woman duped into sex by an online lothario using a fake profile has reached a major milestone in her campaign to force a change in the law.

Anna Rowe, from Rough Common, Canterbury, had received more than 30,000 signatures in support of her petition to make it a prosecutable offence for people to misrepresent themselves for the purposes of sex.

Achieving more than 10,000 names means the government must respond, while 100,000 provokes a debate in Parliament.

Anna, 44, of Ross Gardens, made headlines across the world after this newspaper revealed how she had been tricked into having sex with a married man purporting to be single after meeting him on dating app Tinder.

After newspaper interviews and TV appearances, numerous other people have come forward with their stories.

She said: "I have had far too many messages from other women and men who have had similar experiences.

"The wonderful Press which covered the story led them to me and enabled them to share their experiences when they haven’t felt able to do so before.

"It has absolutely clarified to me that it was the right decision to go public with my story.

"It has been really hard at times, especially with the victim-bashing that follows this kind of story, but that doesn’t faze me.

“People who need support in this kind of situation motivate me to keep going.”

Anna lost her job as a teaching assistant at Ethelbert Road Primary School in Faversham as a result of the publicity, but insists she has no regrets about launching the petition.

In February, the mother-of-two revealed how in 2015 she had entered into a relationship with a man she had met online who claimed to be separated from his ex-wife.

"It has been really hard at times, especially with the victim-bashing that follows this kind of story" - Anna Rowe

After a few months of intense passion, the relationship began to wane and Anna suspected the man she knew as Antony Ray was not in fact who he claimed to be.

By the autumn of last year she learned that far from being single, Antony was married with children and returned to them every weekend.

Even worse, she discovered he was having affairs with various women he had met online.

She said: “This man used me like a personal hotel with benefits under the guise of wanting the romantic, loving relationship he knew I craved.

“He broke my trust, took away my right to choose.

"I did not consent to having a relationship with a married man, or a man who was actively having relations with multiple women simultaneously.”

• Anna’s petition can be found on the change.org website.