A WOMAN who tried to get sympathy from her husband by falsely claiming a stranger had tried to rape her has walked free from court.

Tracy Kent ripped her own clothes before ringing 999 to make the bogus story sound more convincing, Teesside Crown Court heard on Monday.

The 36-year-old called police on June 7 last year claiming she had been grabbed by a man near the Wellington Square car park, in Stockton.

Kent told detectives the man had tried to undo her belt and she had swung a punch at him.

Cleveland Police’s major crime team was called in and the woman was interviewed on seven occasions, continuing to stand by her story.

Police examined CCTV footage of the area and arrested a man who was near the scene at the time of the alleged attack.

He was interviewed for three hours and kept on bail for six days before being released without charge.

Kent, of Varow Terrace, Stockton, admitted making up the allegation when inconsistencies began to emerge in her story.

Rachel Masters, prosecuting, said: “She confessed that she made everything up with the aim of gaining sympathy from her husband.

“She said that after giving the account she was afraid of telling the truth.”

Graham Brown, mitigating, said his client was a damaged and vulnerable woman who had suffered from depression.

He said it was only bad luck that a man had been in the area at the time of the alleged crime and was arrested by police.

He added: “Here we have a person who will not trouble the system in the future and should not have troubled it now had it not been for a certain set of circumstances.”

Mr Brown said Kent had split up with her husband since the incident.

Sentencing her to a 12-month suspended sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice, Recorder David Dobbin told Kent he accepted that she had not made a malicious allegation.

He added: “You did not have anyone in mind – you were not targeting anyone.”

Kent was issued with a 12-month supervision order and given a three-month curfew from 9pm until 8am.