Legal News

A Tube worker who phoned police from outside a nightclub and falsely claimed she had been raped has been jailed for eight months.

The Evening Standard newspaper reports that Comfort Yinusa from Tilbury said she had been attacked outside a pub in Lord Street near Liverpool Street Station – but the following day refused to be medically examined and failed to turn up for police interviews.

Yinusa said she had left the Dollhouse club with two men who attacked her.

She had made the allegation after phoning her boyfriend in distress and asking to be collected in the early hours of the morning in October 2013.

As a result, two police officers and an ambulance with two paramedics were sent to investigate and treat any injuries.
However, the deception was uncovered when detectives found CCTV footage from a McDonald’s restaurant, which showed Yinusa and her two alleged attackers laughing together.

Phone records also showed one of the men was combing the streets of the City looking for his car when the alleged rape was supposed to have taken place.

The two men she had accused of rape were tracked down by police officers – and spent six weeks each on police bail before suspicions against them were dropped by the police.

Yinusa later told detectives she did not want to proceed with her complaint, after one suspect had spent 14 hours and the other 16 hours in police custody during the investigation.

However, more than £3,000 was wasted on forensic lines of inquiry before Yinusa’s accusations could be disproved.

She was arrested in December 2013 and at first pleaded not guilty to doing actions intended to pervert the course of justice.

However, she later changed her plea before her trial was due to begin in May.

Sentencing was delayed pending a medical report relating to her diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. The court heard that she also had alcohol issues – and had also used cocaine as “crutch” for three years before the incident took place.

At the Old Bailey, Judge Peter Rook told her:

“You have let down genuine rape victims – your actions led to a costly and unnecessary police investigation, and two innocent men being put through the trauma of arrest and the procedures that follow.

However, because Yinusa had taken a job working for London Underground “assisting the public”, the judge reduced her sentence – accepting that she was now “a very different person” from the person she had been at the time of the incident.

Judge Rook added:

“Those who make complaints of a serious sexual offence must expect, if they are found to be false, immediate custodial sentences.

“Such behaviour undermines the criminal justice system.”

Duncan Lewis Criminal Solicitors

Duncan Lewis criminal solicitors can advise at any stage of a charge involving sexual offences, including rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, grooming, child sex exploitation, prostitution and making, distributing or downloading indecent images.

There are Duncan Lewis offices nationwide and a criminal defence solicitor can usually reach a police station or Magistrates’ Court within an hour.

For expert legal advice on all criminal charges, call Duncan Lewis criminal solicitors
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