A mother of three, Sophie Skinner, who falsely accused a teenager of raping her, has bagged an 18-months jail sentence over the false claim.
The 25-year-old woman who turned up at Wetherspoons pub in Abergavenny, Wales, in June 2016 where she was seen on CCTV ‘looking for attention’, had a chat with 18-year-old Damon Osborne before she made her way into the bar.
From CCTV footage, it was gathered that after their first meeting, the lady who met the teenager again later that night while he waited for a lift home, asked him if he wanted to have sex. After the teenager agreed to her demand, they went to a nearby public toilets where CCTV caught her initiating sex.
However after they had sex, Skinner threatened to get Osborne into trouble after he refused to have a relationship with her because he had a girlfriend.She was captured again on CCTV, desperately looking for attention from others’, before returning to the Wetherspoons and telling bouncers Mr Osborne had raped her.
Following the accusation, Mr Osborne who was accused of raping the lady was kept in police custody for 17 hours and subjected to ‘embarrassing’ medical examinations after the complaint was made.
It’s turned my life upside down. Yes I had sex with her, but I was not expecting to be accused of rape because it was consensual. ‘I was given a curfew on bail which had an impact on my work and social life. ‘One employer said he no longer required me because I couldn’t work the hours. ‘Yes I did wrong by my partner, and I feel ashamed by my actions. ‘I knew I was innocent but it didn’t stop me thinking about the worst case scenario and being sent to prison for something I didn’t do.
If there was no CCTV in this case she may have been believed and I would be spending years in prison. It would have ruined my life’ he said.
Skinner who was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in September after an earlier trial ended in a hung jury, was accused of having an ‘insidious effect’ on the confidence of the public with genuine rape complaints by the Judge. She was sentenced to 18 months, of which she was told she would serve half before being released on licence.
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