Teenager who cried rape after cheating with ex-boyfriend is jailed for 12 months



Outside court: Three months after accusing a lover of raping her, Amanda Bradley admitted she had lied. She was yesterday jailed for 12 months

A teenager who cheated with her ex-boyfriend has been jailed for 12 months - for falsely claiming he raped her.

Amanda Bradley, 19, texted her new partner to say she'd been raped, Bolton Crown Court heard yesterday, and her victim was arrested while still in her bedroom.

Three months later Bradley finally admitted to police that she'd lied.

Sentencing, Judge Steven Everett said: 'There was indeed an element of spite about what you did and an element of meanness.

'You wanted to get him into trouble and you knew full well you were going to get him into trouble in a very big way.'

Bradley pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing.

Having been arrested, the 28-year-old man she accused - who was not identified in court - was subjected to an 'intimate' forensic examination, interviewed at length and kept in police cell for 17 hours.

He had the offence hanging over him for three months before Bradley's change of heart.

Judge Everett said: 'That must have been a terribly traumatic thing for him. It's impossible to imagine just how traumatic it must have been.'

Geoffrey Southcote-Want, prosecuting, told the court that Bradley's boyfriend called the police on April 5 to say she had been raped.

Officers went to her home address in Bolton, Greater Manchester, and they found her in a bedroom with the victim. She told police she had been raped.

She then spent a long time with an officer specially trained to deal with victims of rape who listened to her story.

Clothing was seized and samples taken. She then visited the St Marys Sexual Assault Referral Centre and underwent a full forensic examination, having been transported to and from the centre by a police officer.

When interviewed the victim strenuously denied he had raped her and said the sex was consensual.

In May, Bradley was video-interviewed by police and again reiterated her claim she had been raped.

But in June she contacted the investigating officer to withdraw her complaint.

She was interviewed again and admitted the sex had been consensual.

When asked why she did it, she told police: 'Because I'd just had enough of him, because every time I got a boyfriend he still wanted sex with me and everything like that.'

Sentencing her at Bolton Crown Court (pictured), Judge Steven Everett said: 'There was indeed an element of spite about what you did and an element of meanness'

Andrew Costello, defending, said that Bradley was only 18 when she committed the offence and described her as being 'very immature and naive'.

Detective Inspector Andy Meeks, of Bolton CID, said: 'Greater Manchester Police would encourage anyone who has been a victim of rape or any sort of sexual abuse to come forward.

'We treat every allegation seriously and will investigate thoroughly and without prejudice.

'The support we gave to Bradley shows just how seriously we take any allegation and I want to stress that in publicising this case, we want anyone who has been a genuine victim to speak to us because we can help not only you, but also put your attacker behind bars.

'However, we must also treat lying to the police about such an awful crime equally seriously.

'Unfortunately, false allegations make a mockery of the experiences suffered by genuine victims.'

He added: 'In investigating this false claim, officers wasted countless hours interviewing witnesses and on paperwork when they could have been dealing with a genuine emergency.

'Not only that, but the man she alleged was responsible had to spend time in a custody cell, wrongly accused of an offence he did not commit. Unfairly, he has been put through a tremendous amount of stress when he is completely innocent.'