A Muslim taxi driver was 'shunned' by his community when an aspiring police officer accused him of sexual assault because he refused to accept a £10 note soaked in kebab oil.
Criminology student Sophie Pointon was jailed for 16 months for claiming that the Muslim dad-of-five attacked her when he drove her home.
The 22-year-old, who dreamed of being a police officer, rang cops in the early hours and signed a statement giving an account of the attack in Leeds.
Police tracked the driver down and kept him in custody for six hours, and he was unable to work for four weeks as a result of the claim.
In a victim impact statement read out in Leeds Crown Court yesterday, the driver 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."
He added: "I feel religiously tainted from this, and no help from the police or the courts can help that.”
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 on April 22.
He said Pointon threw a £10 pound note at him when they reached the Hyde Park area but he refused to accept it as it was covered in oil from the kebab.
The driver said Pointon then became abusive and ran around the car opening doors.
The prosecutor said: "He did not think much of it at the time because such incident with people who are intoxicated are not unusual."
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.
Pointon broke down in tears and asked if she could drop the charges when her account was challenged by police.
She admitted perverting justice.
Denise Breen-Lawton, mitigating, said Pointon, from Manchester, was studying in Leeds at the time.
She said her hopes of becoming a police officer were now ruined.
Judge Christopher Batty told her: "Your malicious complaint has done a huge disservice to those seeking justice through the police and courts."
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AcakTitle is a tad bit misleading, I highly doubt I'll be posting daily in this. Nonetheless, I decided to stop filling my other books with news articles and such so I've created this one. In this book I'll be sharing articles, stories, and sometimes pi...
