Women’s abduction claims were all lies
Pair said they were held in pub against their will , leading to major police operation and arrests
A Doune woman who falsely claimed she and a friend had been abducted, sparking a major police operation, has been ordered to complete unpaid community work.
Alice Nicol, 20, and her co-accused Cathryn Spencer, 19, claimed they were being held against their will in Claymore’s bar in Stirling city centre on December 27 last year.
The duo appeared in the dock at Stirling Sheriff Court this week where Nicol, of Graham Street, was hit with 160 hours of unpaid work – to be completed in six months.
Spencer, of Glenochil Park in Tullibody, had her sentence further deferred as the relevant reports were not yet ready.
The court heard earlier this month how the false claims tied up the whole of Central Scotland’s CID team for an entire shift.
The barman at Claymore’s and his friend had been arrested and held for several hours while the bar was searched by forensic experts. Nicol and Spencer had been in a city centre nightclub on the night of the incident.
After leaving, Spencer claimed they had been “dragged in” to the nearby bar when in actual fact they were given refuge on the cold winter’s night because the barman felt they were too drunk to be out on the street and there was a shortage of taxis.
Depute fiscal Laura Knox said it was a matter of agreement between the prosecution and defence that they had gone into the pub willingly.
However, at around 6am Spencer phoned the police from the ladies’ toilets to say they had been deliberately locked, despite CCTV showing Nicol leaving the pub only six minutes before the call, and chatting to a driver of a car on the street, before going back into the bar again.
Officers rushed to the scene and led the pair out of the building together.
Nicol said she had drunk between 10 and 15 rums on the evening and the allegations were the result of being “a wee bit drunk and having difficulty processing everything that was happening”.
Sentencing her, Sheriff William Gilchrist said: “The concerning thing is the waste of police resources. The only appropriate disposal is unpaid work – for you to put something back into the community.
“If you don’t comply you will be brought back here and sentenced anew.”
Spencer will return to court for sentencing next year.