Abduction hoax care worker avoids jail

COURT: Woman made up claim that she and a friend were dragged into pub and locked in toilet

A care worker who sparked a major police probe when she pretended that she and a friend had been abducted and locked in a pub toilet was spared jail yesterday.

Cathryn Spencer’s lies tied up the whole of Central Scotland’s CID for an entire shift.

Two men were arrested and held for several hours in police cells, the bar was forensically searched and hours of detectives’ time was wasted.

Spencer’s co-accused, Alice Nicol, had falsely claimed that they had been walking past the pub, Claymores in Stirling, on their way back from a nearby nightclub when Spencer “got dragged in by some guy”.

In truth, however, Nicol, then 19, and Spencer, then 18, had been given refuge in the pub on a cold winter’s night because barman Declan Dufficy, 27, son of the then licensee of Claymores, thought they were too drunk to be out on the streets and there was a shortage of taxis.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard that the two girls were seen on CCTV “laughing and joking” outside the closed pub with Mr Dufficy and his friend, Alistair McEwan, a 29-year-old chef.

Prosecutor Laura Knox said contrary to Nicol’s claims, the girls had gone into the pub willingly with Mr Dufficy and Mr McEwan in the early hours of December 27 2015.

Around 6am, Spencer phoned police and claimed they had been deliberately locked in the ladies’ toilet.

Officers rushed to the scene and led Nicol and Spencer out of the building and arrested their two “abductors”.

However, CCTV footage showed Nicol leaving the pub freely only six minutes before Spencer called police, chatting to the driver of a car in the street, and going back into the bar again.

The court heard Nicol, now 20, from Doune, and Spencer, now 19, of Glenochil, had given “very precise, incredibly detailed blow-by-blow” false accounts of their fictitious ordeal.

Both girls were accused of wasting police time.

Nicol was found guilty after a brief trial and sentenced in December to 160 hours of unpaid work, as part of a community payback order.

Spencer pleaded guilty, but sentence was delayed until yesterday because of a hold up over background reports.

Spencer’s solicitor, Frazer McCready, said: “She is a first offender, and has expressed considerable remorse for her foolish behaviour and her involvement in this offence.”

Sheriff Wyllie Robertson sentenced her to 140 hours of unpaid work under a community payback order, a lighter sentence than Nicol’s to reflect her plea.

The probe involved four uniformed officers, six detective constables, one detective sergeant, scenes of crime officers and two officers from the custody unit.

The pub itself was subjected to a detailed scenes-of-crime investigation.

Mr Dufficy, of Clackmannanshire, and Mr McEwan, from Fife, were each interviewed by a pair of detectives for up to 45 minutes apiece.

Specialist police officers investigated the case for a day.

But after viewing the CCTV footage and speaking to a third girl who had been out with Nicol and Spencer, the liars’ tale began to unravel.

Sheriff Robertson told Spencer: “This is a serious matter. You have heard the extent to which officers had been investigating this inquiry.

“They clearly were devoted to this when other requirements have had to take second place.”

Declan Dufficy’s father, also called Declan, said last year: “Declan went through awful hell on account of those two girls.

“That’s what happens when you try to help people.”

Cathryn Spencer, above, and Alice Nicol leave court.