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A woman who “wickedly” accused an innocent police detective of raping her has been jailed for two years and three months.

Halina Khan’s false claim caused suffering and distress to the Leicestershire officer, whom she had never met.

The detective constable was subjected to a humiliating and unnecessary five week investigation, which incurred forensic science costs of more than £10,000.

Khan admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice last November by making a false rape claim against the detective constable.

Sentencing the 40-year-old at Leicester Crown Court, high court judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Khan had committed “a wicked crime” which had “serious consequences” for the victim and his family.

She said such false claims affected public confidence in the genuineness of real rape victims.

The judge told the defendant: “I’m told you’re remorseful, although there’s no evidence of that other than your guilty pleas.”

She added: “Rape is a profoundly hideous crime which all should find repulsive.”

The detective was at home with his wife and son when officers went to his home at night to inform him of the complaint against him.

He attended a police station outside the Leicestershire force area to be interviewed by other officers and to give samples for analysis.

(Image: Mike Sewell)

The allegation caused immense strain in his marriage and he was off work sick for six months with depression and anxiety.

In a victim impact statement, the police officer said he was “completely stunned” by the allegation and his "world fell apart".

He said it was “touch and go” at one stage if he would return to work, and it affected his relationship with his employers.

The man added: “I can’t explain why it affected me as it did.

“If I hadn’t been able to prove my innocence, I’d have lost my liberty.”

Almas Ben-Aribia, prosecuting, said the false rape complaint came after Khan made a call to Leicestershire Police at 8am on November 3 last year.

The defendant initially contacted the force saying her partner had taken her car, without consent, from the Regency Hotel in London Road, Stoneygate, in Leicester.

When two constables arrived at the hotel, the defendant struggled to open the door of her room. Staff facilitated access.

Khan then said she was an escort, and that “a client” had taken her vehicle. She pointed to a red mark on the floor, implying the person had been hurt.

When arrested on suspicion of causing injury, Khan resisted by bashing her phone and struggling with officers.

While being restrained, she hurled racist abuse at a Sikh woman officer and a white male officer.

She then shouted out the untrue rape claim naming the detective – who was not present - as having raped her the previous night at the hotel.

Khan later said at the police station: “I made it up, there, I made it up.”

However, she would not make a statement nor sign an officer’s notebook confirming that her claim was untrue.

The judge said the force had no alternative but to investigate the claim, especially when the defendant was again spoken to and denied fabricating the rape allegation, saying she was just “being sarcastic".

Khan, of Blackfriars Road, Salford, Manchester, but formerly of Leicester, also admitted two counts of racial harassment towards two arresting police officers, by making vile and insulting racist comments.

There were no charges in relation to her having assaulted anyone at the hotel.

The court heard that Khan had two previous convictions for incidents of racially abusing police officers.

The defendant, who has formerly been a project worker helping ex-offenders in Birmingham and has been employed by Women’s Aid in Manchester, sobbed in the dock while her barrister, Dharmendra Toor, gave evidence in her defence.

Mr Toor said: “She’s led a traumatic life.

“She’s utterly remorseful.”

The court heard that Khan used the innocent detective’s name, although she had never met him, because he was one of the officers in an earlier drugs investigation involving her second ex-husband, in 2011.

Mr Toor said Khan had previously encountered domestic abuse, and suffered from depression as well as a “complex post-traumatic stress disorder".

She had a drink problem and consumed “at least one bottle of vodka” before making the false rape claim, the court was told.

“She was plainly unwell and made a spurious allegation against a man she didn’t know, which she says was deplorable and she did retract it,” said Mr Toor.

A Leicestershire Police spokesperson said: “Rape is an extremely serious crime. Whenever someone reports such an offence we conduct a thorough investigation, as the public would expect, searching for as much evidence as is available.

“In this case, that investigation suggested that Khan had lied about what had happened, and that no such crime had ever taken place.

“Making a false allegation of rape is extremely serious, even more so when made against a police officer whose role it is to protect society from harm, and Khan will now face the consequences of her malicious and harmful allegation with a term of imprisonment.”

Women’s Aid in Manchester has contacted the Mercury subsequently to say it has no knowledge of having employed Khan.