Student claimed sex assault after taxi driver refused dirty bank note
22-year-old studying criminology who wanted to become a police officer is jailed for false report
A CRIMINOLOGY student was jailed for 16 months for falsely claiming a taxi driver sexually assaulted her after he refused to accept a £10 note soaked in kebab oil.
Sophie Pointon, 22, whose dreams of a career in the police force are now “in ruins”, told officers she had been molested in the back of the taxi she had taken after a night out in Leeds.
The student rang police in the early hours, then continued the lie by signing a statement giving an account of the attack last April.
Leeds Crown Court heard the driver, a father-of-five, was tracked down and kept in custody for six hours.
Kate Bisset, prosecuting, said the driver was interviewed and said he could recall Pointon being “extremely drunk” when she got into his car holding a kebab.
He said Pointon threw a £10 note at him when they reached the Hyde Park area in Leeds but he refused to accept it as it was covered in oil from the kebab.
The driver added that Pointon then became abusive and ran around the car opening doors. Ms Bisset said: “He did not think much of it at the time because such incidents with people who are intoxicated are not unusual.”
The case never made it to court after evidence came to light that supported the taxi driver’s description of events.
A recording of a conversation between the driver and a phone operator at his taxi office supported his account. The court heard a GPS tracker fitted to the car also revealed Pointon’s description of the taxi journey to be untrue.
The driver told the court in a victim impact statement that the allegation had caused him stress and he was unable to work for four weeks.
He said he had been shunned by the Muslim community following the false claims and banned from entering the homes of friends.
He said: “I am now extremely reluctant to take lone females in case I am accused again. The girl who accused me is the same age as my own daughter – I cannot comprehend why she made this allegation. I feel religiously tainted from this, and no help from the police or the courts can help that. Friends stopped speaking to me and letting me into their homes. People do not even want to be seen with me.”
Pointon broke down in tears and asked if she could drop the charges when her account was challenged by police. She pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Denise Breen-lawton, mitigating, said Pointon, of Manchester, had been studying in Leeds at the time. She has now graduated with a BA Honours in Criminology from Leeds Beckett University, but added that her hopes of becoming a police officer were in ruins.
Judge Christopher Batty told her: “Your malicious complaint has done a huge disservice to those seeking justice through the police and courts.”
‘The girl is the same age as my own daughter – I cannot comprehend why she made this allegation’