A 20-year-old Dublin woman has avoided jail after falsely claiming to gardai that she had been raped by a taxi driver near her home.
Carol Leonard of Briarfield Road in Kilbarrack received a suspended 3-year sentence after she admitted making a false statement at Raheny Garda Station in September 2010.
Miss Leonard told gardai she was raped by a taxi driver coming home from a night out 18 months ago.
She was brought to the Rotunda Hospital for an examination and gardai launched an exhaustive investigation involving interviews and hours of trawling through CCTV footage.
7 weeks after making the allegation the 20-year-old admitted it was a lie when she was brought back to Raheny garda station to clarify some facts.
In court she was described by a garda as being at the time an average teenage girl who was a bit ‘airy fairy’.
Judge Martin Nolan said her actions were ‘profoundly immoral’ as he imposed the 3-year suspended sentence.
He explained that the reason he did not jail her was because no man had been targeted for investigation and that he said was the only redeeming factor in the case.
