Woman who cried rape after sex in public toilet walks free from court



A woman who accused a student of rape after dragging him into a public toilet for sex was spared jail yesterday.

Bisexual Sarah-Jane Hilliard, 20, seduced Grant Bowers when the two bumped into each other during a night out clubbing.

Yesterday Mr Bowers, also 20, attacked the 'ridiculous' sentence after Hilliard received 12 months in jail, suspended for two years. She had denied perverting the course of justice.



Sarah-Jane Hilliard, pictured last summer, claimed she'd been raped after a night out but a jury found her guilty of perverting the course of justice. Today she was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years Just over a week after making the allegations, Hiliard contacted the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, hoping to be awarded up to £7,500

Student Grant Bowers had to wait a week before police told him he wouldn't be charged with rape

Mr Bowers - who says he is now afraid to speak to women - said: 'It's absolutely ridiculous. That's not even a slap on the wrist. She's been let off and I'm still having to sneak around because there are still people after me who think I did it.'

It was more than a week after his arrest that Mr Bowers discovered he was not to be charged.



But during that time Hilliard, who was in a relationship with a woman, contacted the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board in the hope of claiming up to £7,500.

Mr Bowers's father Tony, 48, said: 'My son was facing up to ten years in prison for rape on the strength of her lies. The least I expected was for her to have been given a prison sentence.

'My son is the victim and he has lost his freedom yet she has still got hers.'

Hilliard, from Basildon in Essex, told police she bumped into Mr Bowers at a nightclub called Liquid in the town in July 2008. She claimed to have shared a taxi with him before stopping at the railway station to use the toilet.

The telephone sales worker, who had been drinking, said she went into a cubicle and the next thing she remembered was waking to her underwear and trousers around her ankles.

She claimed to have realised she had been raped only when Mr Bowers sent her a text the following day in which he mentioned they had 'gone all the way'.



Hilliard's lie began to unravel when police were unable to find CCTV footage of the pair leaving the club.

A friend admitted they had been at another nightclub called Colors and detectives found CCTV evidence of Hilliard and Mr Bowers, who was 19 at the time, kissing and holding hands.



Hiliard and Mr Bowers had sex in a toilet cubicle at Basildon station. She told him he 'better be there for the baby' if she fell pregnant

Hilliard was convicted in May last year after Mr Bowers told a jury at Basildon Crown Court he had walked to the station with her and she pulled him into a cubicle for unprotected sex.

Afterwards she warned he had 'better be there for the baby' if she became pregnant.

Her sentencing was delayed for psychiatric reports and yesterday Judge Christopher Mitchell ordered Hilliard to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work and pay £2,000 costs.



After hearing she had 'deeply personal issues' including suffering abuse from a relative, he said: 'False allegations of rape have a terrible knock-on effect.'

Jacqueline Carey, defending, revealed that since her conviction Hilliard had been assaulted by two men, had the word 'bitch' scratched on to her car and lost her partner and friends.

Last year a GP was spared jail by Judge Mitchell despite smacking female patients' bottoms and grilling them about their sex lives.

Married Rajinder Aggarwal, 54, was instead ordered to pay £3,000 and do 80 hours of unpaid work.