Woman admits making false rape allegation Published duration 8 June 2015

A woman has admitted making a false rape allegation against a man who ran off and left her after they had consensual sex on a train.

Karen Farmer, 35, told officers that a man had sexually assaulted her while travelling from Glasgow to Blantyre.

She later admitted making the false claim after police reviewed CCTV images showing her and a man, 23, engaged in sexual activity on the train.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, sentence on Farmer was deferred and bail continued.

The court heard that Farmer, from Paisley, and the man had been on a date in Glasgow city centre on 14 August 2012.

'Physically affectionate'

They were seen drinking and being "openly physically affectionate" by kissing one another.

Farmer was under the impression that she would be staying the night with the man. The pair later boarded a train at Central station that was going to Blantyre - where the man lived.

While on the train, they were captured on CCTV "engaging in consensual sex".

When they departed the train at Blantyre, the man told Farmer he needed the toilet but ran away from the station.

Farmer, who was visibly upset, looked for him and eventually asked to borrow someone's phone to text the man.

She later boarded the train back to Glasgow and during the course of the journey knocked on the driver's cab door and told him she had been assaulted.

When she got to Central station she told police she had been sexually assaulted on the train and taken to a police station.

Farmer told the police about her date with the man and claimed she was in some pain, so was taken to hospital by ambulance.

'Controlling' allegation

She described her alleged attacker as "aggressive and controlling".

The man was detained at work by police and questioned before later being released.

Police viewed CCTV footage from train which did not show any rape taking place.

In October that year, Farmer was detained and then charged with wasting police time.

Defence counsel Louise Arrol said: "She has very little recollection of events that evening.

"There was reference to her being intoxicated. When she viewed the CCTV she realised her recollection was not what she thought it was."

Describing the actions of the man who left her at the train station, she told the sheriff: "It certainly wasn't chivalrous."