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A girl who falsely accused two army soldiers of trying to rape her because she felt ashamed about sleeping with them both has been jailed.

Nicole Richess, 20, had a drunken threesome with the two servicemen at a friend’s house and then her own home at the end of a night out.

The following day her boyfriend heard rumours she had been unfaithful and confronted her.

Richess ‘panicked’ and made up the false claim that the two innocent men, aged 23 and 24, had forced themselves on her because she was too ashamed to tell him she had cheated on him.

Her partner of three years made her go to the police to report the ‘attack’.

Richess even gave a ‘tearful’ account of the co-called crime to officers and ‘illicitly gained their empathy.’

Her ‘deceitful web of lies’ resulted in the arrest of the two soldiers, leaving them ‘distraught and petrified.’

However, officers began to realise Richess was lying when they gathered the accounts of the soldiers and her friends and she was charged with perverting the course of justice.

(Image: BNPS)

She has now been jailed for two-and-a-half years by a judge who told Richess her lies had an ‘insidious and corrosive’ effect on public confidence and the justice system.

Judge Jonathan Fuller QC said: “You made a determined and prolonged attempt to weave a picture of deceit to further your ends and you were prepared to make wholly false allegations of attempted rape against these innocent young men.

“The impact on these victims cannot be understated and false allegations of rape and attempted rape can have dreadful consequences.

“Every occasion of a proved false allegation has an insidious effect on public confidence, sometimes allowing doubts to creep into when one shouldn’t exist.

“Your offence has a corrosive effect on criminal justice.”

Fern Russell, prosecuting, told the court how Richess and her friend Laura Hillwood met a group of four soldiers at Taboo nightclub in Bournemouth, Dorset, on November 9, 2012.

The women went back to Ms Hillwood’s home in Bournemouth with the men where two of them had sex with Richess in a bedroom.

Ms Hillwood walked in on them to find Richess wearing just a bra and the two soldiers in a ‘state of undress’.

(Image: BNPS)

Ms Hillwood ordered the trio to leave and they went to Richess’ home in Bournemouth where they continued to have sex.

The following morning Richess drove the soldiers to their barracks at Blandford Army Camp, Dorset.

Ms Russell said: “Ms Hillwood then told her mutual friends she had walked in on a threesome.

“That was fed to Nicole’s boyfriend and he became angry about the situation and wanted to know what was going on.”

Richess denied to her friends and her boyfriend that the sex was consensual and claimed she was raped.

She claimed the soldiers walked into the bedroom while she was changing her clothes where they attempted to orally and anally rape her.

She recalled to officers her false story in ‘great detail’ in a 65 minute recorded interview, the court heard.

In total, Richess’ claims wasted 296 hours of police time.

She had denied a charge of perverting the course of justice but changed her plea to guilty on the eve of a trial over two years later.

(Image: BNPS)

In a victim impact statement the 23-year-old serviceman said he was worried about his future as a soldier, adding he was proud of representing the country.

He said: “The lasting effect of this case will follow me for many years and perhaps the rest of my life.”

The 24-year-old said: “I was petrified and couldn’t believe this was happening to me. It changed me as a person and I have become a lot quieter and less confident.

“My family were distraught about the allegations and the worry has been the biggest thing for me.”

In mitigation, Tony Ventham said Richess - who is seven-and-a-half months pregnant by her current partner - said she felt pressured in to reporting the false claims because her former boyfriend was ‘violent’ and ‘controlling’.

Richess had also taken cocaine for the first time that night.

Mr Ventham said: “She called the police because she was in a panic and because she’s stupid and immature.”

He added: “In December the following month she tried to commit suicide and had been struggling with depression ever since.”

Richess was told she would start her sentence in a young offenders’ institute.