AN INNOCENT man spent more than 14 hours in a cell after a lying teenage girl falsely accused him of molesting her.
Police officers had spent “between 40 and 60 hours” investigating the claims before the 15-year-old girl, who suffers from depression, admitted she had made them up.
She pleaded guilty to wasting police time at a hearing at Vale Royal Youth Court on Wednesday and will be sentenced later this month.
Julie Barr, prosecuting, said the girl, who is from Winsford, was tracked down by police at around 7.30pm on July 29 after being reported missing from home.
The girl claimed she was grabbed by a man, who she knew, and taken into the car park of the Old Star pub on Swanlow Lane.
She claimed her attacker then opened the locked pub with a set of keys, took her inside and sexually assaulted her after giving her a drink of Fanta.
At 2.40am the following day the man was arrested and locked in a cell at Middlewich custody suite, where he remained for 14 hours until his alibi checked out.
The publican later told police the inn had been open all night, no one but himself had keys, and the pub did not sell Fanta.
She later admitted she had made the allegations up.
Stephen Rodgers, defending, described her as “a rather unhappy girl”. She will be sentenced on December 19. Magistrates ruled out imposing a custodial sentence.
