Woman is jailed for lying about sex attack

Diane Marie Whitehead was looking to break up with a partner and needed an excuse not to go to work when she dialled 999 and said she had been attacked in Horsforth, Leeds on July 22 last year.

The 32-year-old told police she was walking through a ginnel on her way to work when a man asked her for the time before he pushed her against a wall and grabbed her by her throat.

Whitehead said he had a knife and grabbed at the waistband of her trousers, causing a button to come off. He cut her to the side of her stomach before he ran off.

Martin Robertshaw, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday, she gave a detailed description of the clothes her alleged attacker was wearing and when police attended her home she repeated her account. She also gave the same story during a video recording and was seen at hospital where a small 3mm cut was seen on her stomach.

But she later admitted that had been a self-inflicted injury as part of her fabricated account.

Unfortunately, a man wearing clothing matching those she had described had been in the area at around the same time and he was arrested, said Mr Robertshaw. He was held in custody for 23 hours before being bailed. His home was searched, his clothes were taken for forensic examination, he had to undergo DNA checks and his mobile phone was seized.

Over two months West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Inquiry team carried out a “vast” investigation and 38 witness statements were taken. “The estimated cost to the state of the police having to investigate this false complaint was £57,900.”

Police became suspicious, however, when Whitehead appeared to be avoiding meeting officers and they were able to establish she was telling lies about her movements. On September 23 she was seen at Weetwood police station in Leeds and when told no evidence could be found to support her account, she finally admitted she had made it all up.

Whitehead, recently of Silk Mill Approach, Leeds, admitted doing acts tending to pervert the course of justice and was jailed for eight months.