A teenager has been jailed after making up a story about being confronted by a bogus police officer, before using the tragic Sarah Everard's death as an excuse for the fabrication.
Olivia Johnson was keen to portray herself as a victim, but her 'dangerous' falsities landed an innocent 66-year-old motorist in police custody for almost 24 hours.
The 'distraught' grandfather had been trying to help Johnson, flashing his lights to indicate she did not have hers on while driving in dark and 'torrential' rain. Hours later, the 19-year-old from Walsall concocted a 'fantasy tale' by reporting him to the West Midlands Police - claiming he had gestured her to pull over and get out of the 'stolen' car she was driving.
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Birmingham Live reports that the man mentioned was arrested the next day, while Johnson maintained her bizarre account until CCTV proved otherwise. Compounding her deployable actions, she made a twisted attempt to justify herself by referencing the death of Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens last year.
Couzens was subsequently sentenced to a whole-life term in September last year for his actions - a mere month before Johnson fabricated her story.
John Brotherton, prosecuting the teenager's case at Birmingham Crown Court, said: "The defendant made references throughout the course of her police interview to her concerns over Sarah Everard, how it impacted on her and why she acted the way she had."
Judge Melbourne Inman QC, The Recorder of Birmingham, also made reference to it as he sentenced the crying teenager to eight months detention in a young offenders institute after she pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. He said: "You told police you struggled with anxiety and depression and you had in mind, as you put it, the recent Sarah Everard case which was a tragic case in London in the public eye at or not long before this happened."
Johnson was driving her VW Polo around Walsall in 3.10pm on October 4 last year when the victim's Nissan Juke flashed his lights to warn her that her lights were off. Less than four hours later, she made a report to police claiming that he had told her to pull over, confronting her at the driver's side window before attempting to get into her vehicle. The story itself however was a complete lie.
The man was arrested the next day, detained for 23 hours and subjected to an identification parade - in which Johnson was unable to pick him out from. While the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge the grandfather, his file was not closed until more than two months later, on the 24th of December.
The ordeal left the man 'severely shook up' the court heard. Police put in a significant amount of work, investigating claims made against him, which ultimately proved Johnson's undoing.
She was diagnosed with a 'borderline personality disorder' on top of her other mental health and domestic issues. Joshua Purser, defending Johnson of Stag Crescent, Blakenall, stated she suffered a panic attack at the wheel and made the allegations after hearing voices. But Judge Inman highlighted the fact she maintained the lie for four days after the original report.
He said: "You were keen to portray yourself as a victim. The author of the pre-sentence report recalls you saying you realised what you were saying to the police wasn't true and was false. It wasn't a case of you being deluded."
The judge ruled there were no 'exceptional circumstances' to warrant suspending her sentence and added: "Those who commit this type of offence, make big allegations and as a result innocent people are harmed, must expect immediate custodial sentences whatever the mitigation. The offence of perverting the course of public justice undermines the whole of public justice."
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