A teenage girl who lied about being raped by a taxi driver was sentenced to a four-month detention and training order today.
The 17-year-old, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at a hearing last month.
District Judge David Thomas, sentencing at Bradford Magistrates' Court today, told the girl she would serve two months of her sentence in custody.
The girl made the claim against Bradford taxi driver Aftab Ahmed, 44, in January last year.
She had been drinking in the city centre with her sister and friend when they put her in his taxi and sent her home.
Mr Ahmed reassured them she would be safe by giving them his registration number, the court heard. The 17-year-old was sick six times on the way home and had trouble directing the taxi driver.
Mr Ahmed asked a bus driver and a couple at a party for help before eventually finding her house, the court heard.
When she returned home the girl made the allegation of rape to the police and took them to a location on Baildon Moor where she said it had taken place.
The judge said: "What you did had disastrous consequences so far as Mr Ahmed was concerned.
"He couldn't find your home because you were not in a position to direct him to it and he took the trouble to ask at several places.
"You repaid that kindness by alleging that he had raped you.
"The consequences were disastrous for Mr Ahmed, who was arrested in front of his family."
The judge said that although the girl may have initially believed her own allegations, she continued to press ahead with them even when she realised she had been mistaken.
Acknowledgement: Evening Times Online 24th April 2007