A woman who made false rape claims has been sentenced to 16 weeks in custody suspended for a year at Carlisle Magistrate court.

A, 18-year-old woman who lied to police about being raped has been sentenced to 16-weeks in custody, suspended for 1-year. Ms Takara Jayne Harding appeared before Carlisle Magistrates and pleaded guilty to wasting police time. Harding told police she was raped in a lane near the viaduct

The court was told that the allegation of rape caused over 500-hours of police time being wasted. On sentencing Ms Harding was told this was an alleged serious crime and justified a custodial sentence, it had a huge impact on young girls in the city and caused a lot of publicity,