'Drunk' student jailed for falsely accusing taxi driver of rape
A student has been jailed for falsely accusing a taxi driver of raping her after he refused to accept her kebab-soaked money while she was "extremely drunk".
Sophie Pointon, 22, rang police in the early hours of April 22 and told them she had been molested in the back of a taxi after a night out, The Telegraph reports.
The criminology student then signed a statement giving an account of the alleged attack in Leeds.
The Leeds Crown Court heard the driver, a father-of-five, was kept in custody for six hours and missed four weeks of work as a result of the allegations against him.
Prosecutor Kate Bisset said the driver was interviewed and he claimed that Pointon was “extremely drunk” when she got into his taxi holding a kebab.
He said the 22-year-old threw a £10 note at him when they reached the Hyde Park area, but he refused to accept it because it was covered in oil.
It’s at this point the driver said the passenger became abusive and ran around the car opening doors.
The prosecutor said the driver “did not think much” of Pointon’s behaviour at the time because such incidents with intoxicated people “are not unusual”.
A phone recording between the driver and an operator at his taxi office supported his account of Pointon’s behaviour.
The court also heard a GPS tracker fitted to the taxi revealed Pointon’s description of the journey was not true.
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Pointon was in tears and asked if she could drop the charges when police challenged her account of night’s events.
She pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Denise Breen-Lawton, mitigating, said Pointon’s hopes of becoming a police officer were now ruined as she was jailed for 16 months.
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