Teenage girl in custody over rape lie

A teenage girl was given a custodial sentence today for pretending she had been raped.

Shop supervisor Clare Newson, 19, got drunk and had sex in an alley following a party last August, but made up the rape story while telling her boyfriend about the incident. He urged her to report the sex attack to police.

When she refused, he told her parents their daughter had been the victim of rape. Newson reported the lie to police four days later, merely to stop her parents nagging her, Oxford Crown Court heard.

The claims led to the arrest of Andrew Grindle, who suffered abuse and threats from people who labelled him a rapist. It was only due to a thorough police investigation that he was found to be innocent. Newson, of Banbury, was sentenced to six months in a young offenders' institution after admitting the lie in court.