A woman who falsely accused a teenager of raping her has been jailed for 18 months. Sophie Skinner, 25, went alone to a Wetherspoons pub in Abergavenny, Wales, in June 2016 where she was seen on CCTV ‘looking for attention’. She came across Damon Osborne, who was 18 at the time, and got chatting before she made her way to another bar.
The mother-of-three came across Mr Osborne again later that night while he waited for a lift home. She asked him if he wanted to have sex and the pair went into some nearby public toilets where CCTV caught her initiating sex, Metro reports.
She then told him she could get him into ‘trouble’ after he refused to have a relationship with her because he had a girlfriend. Skinner went to another bar where she was again captured on CCTV ‘desperately looking for attention from others’, before returning to the Wetherspoons and telling bouncers Mr Osborne had raped her.
Prosecutor Julian Greenwood read a victim impact statement from Mr Osborne, in which he said he was kept in police custody for 17 hours and subjected to ‘embarrassing’ medical examinations after the complaint was made.
Mr Osborne said: ‘
It’s turned my life upside down. Yes I had sex with her, but I was not expecting to be accused of rape because it was consensual. ‘I was given a curfew on bail which had an impact on my work and social life. ‘One employer said he no longer required me because I couldn’t work the hours. ‘Yes I did wrong by my partner, and I feel ashamed by my actions. ‘I knew I was innocent but it didn’t stop me thinking about the worst case scenario and being sent to prison for something I didn’t do.
If there was no CCTV in this case she may have been believed and I would be spending years in prison. It would have ruined my life.’ S
Skinner, from Woodland Crescent, Llanfoist, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in September after an earlier trial ended in a hung jury.
The judge in the case said the false complaint had an ‘insidious effect’ on the confidence of the public with genuine rape complaints.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
