Detention
for rape lie teenager
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/3594804.stm
BBC
- 24th August 2004
A
teenager who lied about being raped has been sentenced to six months'
detention.
Carli Purvis
from Wearside admitted perverting the course of justice by making
a false rape claim, at an earlier hearing.
The 18-year-old
of Park Avenue, Washington, was sentenced on Tuesday at Newcastle
Crown Court.
Her lies
led to a 23-year-old male nurse being questioned by police before
her story was exposed.
Purvis had
met the nurse in Stevie Y's nightclub, in Washington, after having
an argument with her boyfriend, the father of her one-year-old daughter.
'Avoid
trouble'
The court heard she went with the man to his mother's house
where they got into bed together, but nothing happened and he later
asked her to leave.
After leaving,
Purvis phoned her boyfriend and said she had been attacked in the
street.
Police arrested
the nurse, but soon realised he was innocent.
He has since
quit his job unable to cope with the consequences of being arrested.
Prosecutor
Alec Burns told the court: "She said she had been raped to
avoid the obvious trouble that she had left the club with another
man."
He said
16 police officers, two doctors, forensic scientists and 254 man
hours had been involved in investigating the lies.
'Serious
offence'
Jamie Adams, defending, told the court: "What she did was born
out of stupidity, naivety and irresponsibility.
"She
never imagined that making an allegation it would go as far as it
did and she did not think anyone would be arrested for it."
He said
when she found out someone had been arrested she admitted she had
been telling lies.
Sentencing
her to six months' detention in a young offenders' institute, Judge
Guy Whitburn QC said: "The offence is so serious nothing other
than custody can be jusified."
