Spennymoor woman jailed for making two false rape allegations

Both of Chloe Anderson’s malicious claims led to the law-abiding victim being arrested and taken into police custody where intimate samples were taken before he was interviewed under caution.

Durham Crown Court was told Anderson maintained her account and even made further false claims relating to other people, which led to a caution for malicious communication in June, last year.

Chris Morrison, prosecuting, said the false rape allegations were made in March and May, 2023, and the victim remained under suspicion until early July last year.

(Image: Durham Constabulary)

The first allegation was automatically referred to police via the ambulance service, who responded to a report of the defendant having taken an overdose.

When spoken to by police she claimed she took the overdose as a result of the attack.

Mr Morrison said she claimed the rapist forced his way into her house and she went on to give a detailed account, which was captured on body worn camera by the officers responding.

She then gave a 45-minute interview outlining the allegations in full, claiming the attacker had been threatening her for weeks.

Mr Morrison said the innocent victim of her claims was arrested at his home that day causing him immediate, “shock and disbelief”.

When she made her second allegation Anderson did not appear too distressed and even made light of it, appearing reluctant to give a full interview, saying she had been through it, “too many times.”

The victim was again arrested and had to undergo the same police procedure, but his alibi as to where he was at the time Anderson claimed he raped her, was backed up by cctv evidence.

Anderson was arrested on July 2 and made no reply when questioned.

In his impact statement the victim said he felt wary going out in public, including to his local pub, in case people believed the allegations.

He feared he would lose his job and he even moved away from where he had been living.

Twenty-year-old Anderson, of St Paul's Close, Spennymoor, who was 18 at the time she made the false allegations, admitted two counts of perverting the course of justice at a plea hearing at the crown court in early May.

Sentence was adjourned to allow for probation and psychiatric reports to be prepared.

Jonathan Walker, in mitigation, said her expressions of regret and remorse made to the authors of those reports were “genuine”.

“She wants to convey an apology to the victim.

“It’s not a self-serving act, but a genuine apology.”

Mr Walker said she could have “drawn it out” for longer but entered her guilty pleas at the first crown court hearing.

He said there was an absence of sophistication as to the offences.

“It was over a three to four-month period at a time at a time when she was ‘lashing out’ with destructive disregarding behaviour towards the victim.

Mr Walker said the defendant was “emotionally unstable” with a personality disorder and a “distorted sense of self”.

“To her credit, she admitted it at a relatively early stage at court and she is without previous convictions, and with just one caution.”

Judge Jo Kidd said the timing of the allegations corresponded with a time when the defendant was seeking attention from support services.

“It was essentially a manipulation of the process as people weren’t immediately doing what she wanted and the easiest way to get that attention was to make lurid allegations against an innocent man which were then repeated.”

Mr Walker said: “It’s clearly self-destructive attention-seeking against a backdrop of self-harm.”

He urged Judge Kidd to take an exceptional course and pass a suspended prison sentence.

(Image: Durham Constabulary)

But Judge Kidd said it was too serious a case to be met with anything other than an immediate prison sentence.

She said the victim of her allegations was: "a thoroughly decent, upstanding and innocent man who kept himself to himself and had no ill-will to you whatsoever.

“He was living peacefully and doing his best to lead a law-abiding life.”

(Image: The Northern Echo)

Judge Kidd said the false rape allegations were made in some detail and then repeated.

“It must have taken you some time and some imagination to come up with those details and in so doing he was again arrested and taken into a police station and subjected to intimate searches.”

Judge Kidd said the victim was worried the allegations, false as they were, “might stick” in the minds of some people in the community.

Referring to her later further false allegations, for which she received a caution for malicious communication, Judge Kidd told Anderson: “You are manipulative and give no thought to the harm you cause innocent people.

“The only person you care for is for yourself.

“I take the view your reasoning for making these false allegations were to manipulate support services for you.

“If you did not achieve what you wanted, this was your knee-jerk response to get attention and then you did get that immediate attention.

“It was in my view calculated.

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“When arrested, you had the opportunity to tell the truth and up until May 3 this year the victim was faced with the prospect of having to come to court to give evidence at a trial and being publicly-accused of being a rapist by you.”

Imposing a 27-month prison sentence, Judge Kidd also made Anderson the subject of an indefinite restraining order forbidding contact or approaches to her victim.

Judge Kidd added that had there only been a single false rape allegation the submissions made on Anderson’s behalf may have carried greater weight.