ABUSE LIES KEBAB GIRL LOCKED UP
Student cabbie attack claim
A TEENAGER who wanted to be a policewoman lied that a taxi driver sexually assaulted her after he refused her kebab-stained tenner.
Drunken Sophie Pointon, 22, dialled 999 to claim she had been molested as she returned home after a night out.
But she was jailed for 16 months after admitting perverting the course of justice.
The cabbie, a dad-of-five, wass tracked down and held for six hours in custody.
Leeds Crown Court heard that he was unable to work for four weeks as a result of the bogus claim and was shunned by the Muslim community because of her lies.
Kate Bisset, prosecuting, said the cabbie remembered Pointon being “extremely drunk” when she got into his car holding a kebab.
She threw a £10 note at him when she wanted to get out but he refused to accept it as it was covered in oil.
The cabbie said that Pointon then became abusive and ran around the car opening doors.
The prosecutor added: “He did not think much of it at the time because such incidents with intoxicated people are not unusual.” A recording of a conversation between the driver and a phone operator at his taxi office supported his account. And a GPS tracker fitted to the motor proved that Pointon’s story about the taxi journey was untrue. When challenged by police, Pointon – from Manchester but studying in Leeds at the time – sobbed and asked if she could drop the charges. In a victim impact statement, the cabbie said he had been shunned by the Muslim community following her lies and banned from entering friends’ homes. He said: “I am now extremely reluctant to take lone females in case I am accused again. “I feel religiously tainted by this.” Denise Breen-Lawton, defending, said Pointon’s hopes of becoming a police officer were now ruined.