Rape Claim Woman Given Payback Order

A woman who sparked a police investigation when she falsely claimed she had been raped on a train has been given a community payback order.

Karen Farmer told officers that a man had sexually assaulted her while travelling from Glasgow to Blantyre.

The 35 year old had consented to having sex with the man, having been on a date with him on the hours leading up to the journey, but he ran off and left her once they got off the train.

Farmer later alleged the 23-year-old she had been intimate with was "aggressive and controlling" which lead to him being detained at his work and quizzed by police.

Farmer, from Paisley pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to falsely claim she was raped and causing police to devote their time and services in an investigation she knew was false.

Passing sentence sheriff Kenneth Mitchell told her: "Any right minded individual would have little sympathy for the complainer, he behaved disgracefully."

Farmer will be supervised for the next three years as a condition of her order.

The court heard that on August 14, 2012 Farmer and the man went on a date in Glasgow city centre.

They were seen drinking and being "openly physically affectionate" by kissing one another.

Procurator fiscal depute Collette Fallon said that Farmer was under the impression that she would be staying the night with the man.

The pair later boarded a train at Central station that was going to Blantyre - where her date lived.

While on the rain, they were captured on CCTV "engaging in consensual sex".

Miss Fallon said that when they got off of the train at Blantyre, the man told Farmer he needed the toilet but ran away from the station.

Farmer, visibly upset, looked for him and eventually asked to borrow someone's phone to text her date.

In the message she said: "Thanks for the night that I paid for for you to leave me in Blantyre."

The message also said: "For you to use me like that has made me feel so low.

"Trying to find my way back home, I don't know how to get there."

Miss Fallon said; "The accused boarded the train back to Glasgow, during the course of the journey she knocked on the driver's cab door and the driver of the train opened the door and saw the accused was upset and crying.

"She told him she had been assaulted but did not specify further."

When she got to Central station she told police she had been sexually assaulted on the train and taken to a police station.

Farmer told the police about her date with the man and claimed she was in some pain, so was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Miss Fallon added: "The chair the accused was sitting in was seized as a production."

Swabs were taken from her as well as her underwear and later her clothes, and she met with an officer who specialises in sexual assault.

She described her alleged attacker as "aggressive and controlling".

The man was detained at work by police and questioned although later released.

Police viewed the CCTV from train which did not show any rape taking place.

In October that year, Farmer was detained and later charged for wasting police time.

Defence counsel Louise Arrol described her client as a "vulnerable 35-year-old".

Miss Arrol said: "She has very little recollection of events that evening.

"There was reference to her being intoxicated. When she viewed the CCTV she realised her recollection was not what she thought it was."

The defence lawyer added that her client had paid for the evening out with the man before going to Blantyre.