News False rape claim lands teenager behind bars
AN 'A' LEVEL cookery student has been sent to a young offenders' institute for eight months after making a false cry of rape against a taxi driver on a drunken girls' night out.
University hopeful Seonad Campbell (18) told police a taxi driver had raped her in his cab after he drove her home from a party in Pontefract and diverted her down a dark country lane after driving to her home at East Cowick.
She claimed he forced her to have sex and that she struggled and screamed, but she had in fact repeatedly asked him for sex.
The taxi driver was saved by his use of a mobile phone to record their meeting, where she clearly consented to sex, proving she was lying and that he was telling the truth, Hull Crown Court was told on Friday.
Judge Roger Thorn, QC, sentenced Miss Campbell, who sat close to tears. He said: "Had this case gone to trial, and had that taxi driver not had that clip and been convicted, he would have faced a sentence of not less than eight years' imprisonment. The public may well think it entirely proper that the sentence you would have inflicted on an entirely innocent man, should be passed on you.
"False allegations of this kind go to the heart of the criminal justice system. It results in entirely innocent people facing these charges and damages their reputations.
"You are immature and naïve, but such is the serious nature of this offence and the huge impact on public policy that it has to be met by an immediate custodial sentence."
He said juries had a difficult enough time determining who was telling the truth in rape cases for fear of people like her making false allegations.
Miss Campbell pleaded guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice.
The court heard she reported the claim to Goole Police, causing two men to be locked up and questioned for eight hours and two hours in June last year.
The first was wrongly identified as driving her home. The second taxi driver had not raped her, but had recorded their exchange on his mobile telephone.
Crown barrister David Cammies said: "She gave a wholly-unambiguous account that she had been raped. She said a taxi driver took her down a back lane near her home and forced her to have sex. She described how he pushed her down, she screamed a bit, struggled but had been unable to resist him and he had forced sex on her and then drove her home."
Miss Campbell, of Lidgate, East Cowick, was treated as a rape victim initially. Mr Cammies said police received a call from Miss Campbell's father at 4.15am on May 30, claiming his daughter had been raped by a taxi driver. A police officer went to her home and spoke to Miss Campbell, who confirmed she had been raped. The officer decided she was under the influence of drink and told her to get some sleep and she would be seen again that morning. An officer returned at 9.15am and at that stage Miss Campbell said she had not been attacked by the taxi driver and signed a statement to that effect.
However, later at around 11.15am, the police officer in the case received a call from Miss Campbell's brother saying she had changed her mind and wanted to make a complaint of rape. The officer spoke to Miss Campbell, who said she did want to make a complaint.
Mr Cammies said that despite her father calling 10 minutes later saying she did not want to make a complaint, Miss Campbell was taken to the Goole Police Station rape suite. There she gave a formal interview and detailed the complaint of rape.
She gave the police a card which she believed had the taxi driver's name on it. The police identified that taxi driver, he was arrested and interviewed and held for seven hours and 40 minutes. He was able to explain he was with a regular fare with another customer and that there was another driver who had a similar name. On June 2 the police made contact with the second driver and he was interviewed and then arrested. He was kept in custody for one hour and 20 minutes
"He confirmed he had sex with Miss Campbell but said it was consensual. He provided a video clip from his mobile telephone where she is plainly asking him for sex," said Mr Cammies.
He was released by police and arrangements were made to interview Miss Campbell.
"She said at the time of making the complaint she thought what she was saying was right," said Mr Cammies. "She said she made the complaint under pressure from her father and brother. She said she was sorry, but she did think she had been raped. She said she had just given an account of what she thought had happened."
Supported by he father in the public gallery, Miss Campbell was dressed smartly in a suit and bowed her head as her barrister Anil Murray said she was full of remorse.
He said: "She was very drunk, upset and could not remember what had happened."
He urged the judge to pass a non-custodial sentence and said it would blight Miss Campbell's career before it had just begun if she was sent to a young offenders' institution.
He said she had three 'A' Levels, was doing a professional cookery course and wanted to go to university.
He said Miss Campbell had no previous convictions apart from a drink-driving offence and had made repeated efforts to withdraw the allegations.
Published on 10th January 2008 in News.
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