A MOTHER-OF-FOUR pretended to be a 14-year-old schoolgirl rape victim when she made thousands of hoax calls to hospitals and police.
Rachel Marsh, 28, rang most of the police forces in the country and numerous hospitals and midwives with a desperate story about how she had been raped by her stepfather who was going to snatch the baby and throw it in a canal.
Marsh, of Rhyl, appeared before Chester magistrates on Wednesday to be sentenced after admitting harassment and wasting police time between February and May last year.
Cheshire policewoman Yvonne Ouseley spent 350 hours investigating the case while about 500 hours were wasted by another eight Cheshire officers – the first force to receive the hoax calls.
Twelve days after the first Cheshire calls, Marsh had made similar calls to North Wales Police and midwives.
Marsh even texted police from the custody suite where she was being interrogated.
Prosecutor Anne Rouse said Marsh “appeared” pregnant but when she was strip-searched police found she was wearing a padded bra and a swimsuit encasing a carefully folded blanket to give the appearance she was pregnant. She had also concealed a mobile phone and three SIM cards.
Gynaecologist Sara Brigham, of the Countess of Chester Hospital, received calls while on duty from Marsh claiming she was a 14-year-old who had given birth three days earlier. The consultant spent an extra six-and-a-half hours on her shift trying to get to the truth.
Ms Rouse said: “The investigation heightened because later conversations and texts said this stepfather had taken the baby and it was suggested he was going to get rid of the baby by throwing it in the canal.”
By June last year Marsh admitted to police what she had done and she pleaded guilty to the offences in August.
Elen Parry, defending, said Marsh, who is currently six months pregnant, was still adamant that a 16-year-old girl was “equally involved” in the hoax calls. Despite that she accepted her role in what was a “strange and unusual case” and described her actions as “infantile and stupid”.
A psychiatrist had been unable to pinpoint the exact motivation, but the death of her “very supportive” grandfather in November 2006, the sudden and unexpected death of her 44-year-old mother in November last year, her move from Blackpool to North Wales after her husband left her, may all have been factors.
Magistrate Patricia Bogunovic said Marsh had caused considerable disruption and stress to many people, diverting them from essential work.
After consideration of medical and psychiatric reports Marsh was given a three year supervision order, a 9pm to 7am daily curfew for three months and ordered to pay £300 costs.
