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	England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions >> Thomas, R v [2008] EWCA Crim 412 (13 February 2008) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2008/412.html Cite as: [2008] EWCA Crim 412, [2008] 2 Cr App Rep (S) 77, [2008] 2 Cr App R (S) 77

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IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
CRIMINAL DIVISION

		Royal Courts of Justice Strand London, WC2A 2LL
		13th February 2008

1. The Common Serjeant: Kerry Ann Thomas is now 38 years of age. On 31st October of last year, at the Crown Court at Wolverhampton, she pleaded guilty to doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of justice. She appeared on 21st November before Mr Recorder Chinery and was sentenced to a total of 32 months. She appears this morning with the leave of the single judge.
2. The background is this. On 10th June of last year late at night, she met a man call Mr Maslin outside an Indian restaurant. They flirted together and ended up having sex in a nearby alley. They were observed by some of the male staff from the restaurant who found it amusing. This clearly upset the appellant. She returned to the restaurant where both her daughter and her partner were eating, and, without discussing it in any way, she used her mobile to phone the police and to complain that she had been raped. The police swiftly arrived. This led to a fairly large scale investigation on what was, on any view, a busy night for the local constabulary.
3. On the following afternoon she made a written statement that the assailant was an Asian male. As a result of that a bar tender at the restaurant, Mr Noorey, was arrested in full view of his colleagues and customers causing him considerable personal embarrassment. He then spent some six hours in custody and was subjected to the usual medical investigations, again, something which caused him considerable personal embarrassment. The end result was that for various reasons he lost his job in the restaurant and certainly lost some standing in the local community, albeit he was innocent in every way possible.
4. The story continues in this way. Two days later a video interview was taken from Miss Thomas. She maintained the allegation, but said she could not be sure whether it was an Asian gentleman or not. She then agreed to a press release to try and identify the offender. As a result of that, Mr Maslin came forward and was arrested. He spent some two hours and 16 minutes in custody. He, too, was subjected to the usual medical investigations. He made a statement putting his point of view some days later.
5. As a result the appellant was arrested. Over two interviews she still maintained the story that she had been raped, but on the third interview she admitted that that was not true. She had not been raped and had continued to lie over this long period. The only explanation she could give was may be this was a plea for help.
6. The recorder had a pre-sentence report before him. The officer who compiled that report recorded that she had consumed something like three pints of lager in the course of the evening and three pints of cider at the restaurant. She picked up the phone on the spur of the moment. In the view of the officer her denials were more concerned with her own embarrassment, albeit she was now in a state of remorse.
7. She had a job as a carer and lived with her 14 year old son. She had several other children who were older. Only one of them as a result of this was on speaking terms with her. It was the view of the officer that drink may well explain part of the offence but that did not explain the continued denials.
8. The learned recorder in his sentencing remarks observed that this had wider implications for genuine victims and in this particular case significant resources were deployed when the officers were particularly busy. He underlined that two men had been wrongly arrested and subjected to medical investigations and one, indeed, had lost his job.
9. This was a flagrant lie maintained over days even when she was confronted with clear evidence. This was obviously a case where the custody threshold had been crossed. He gave her due credit for an early plea and reduced the amount that he considered to be appropriate by one third.
10. The grounds that have been succinctly argued in the papers before us and this morning are, firstly, that there was insufficient regard for remorse and an early plea and that, in any event, 32 months was too long.
11. We have given this careful consideration. We agree overall with the observations of the learned recorder. This was a totally irresponsible action which had significant and detrimental effects on the lives of two men. She spurned a number of opportunities to correct matters and in the process additionally wasted valuable police time and effort. We do, however, take into account her own personal difficulties and problems and take the view that the sentence was too long. In our judgment, the appropriate sentence in all the circumstances should be one of 18 months. That is the sentence we substitute for the sentence originally passed. To that extent the appeal succeeds.