Temitope Adenugba was struggling to meet a deadline at Oxford Brookes University, when she phoned police saying she had been subjected to a serious sexual assault as she slept in her hall of residence.
When officers arrived to take a statement, the 24-year-old pointed at cleaner Kunle Ogunmola and said: ‘Can’t talk here, that’s the man who raped me.’
Mr Ogunmola was arrested, before police exposed her claims to be ‘a catalogue of lies’.
Oxford Crown Court recorder Rabinder Singh said: ‘It’s extremely easy to make an allegation of rape when there’s no foundation whatsoever.
‘But it’s likely to have the perverse impact of guilty men walking free.’
Mr Ogunmola had no access to Adenugba’s room – and mobile phone analysis debunked her claims he had harassed her with calls. Further analysis showed no DNA link to support her claim.
In court, she admitted perverting the course of justice over the fake claims made in May of last year.
The court heard she had made another false rape claim against a previous partner in October 2006.
Walter Scott, mitigating, said his client had made the claim against Mr Ogunmola after an earlier false allegation of harassment against the same man ‘didn’t have the desired effect of extending her time to do her coursework’.
He added: ‘She was not seeking to directly attack the victim – he was chosen rather arbitrarily.’
But Det Ch Insp Colin Paine said: ‘It caused significant distress to the man accused.’
