Woman 'cried rape to justify lover's attack on ex-boyfriend'

Sharon Owers told police that keen yachtsman Chris Sullivan had raped her on her birthday on a pontoon at Swanwick Marina, near Southampton.

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However, she made the allegation only when she and boyfriend Craig Abernethy were being interviewed over a frenzied attack on Mr Sullivan.

A jury heard that CCTV footage and evidence did not back up the claim of rape and Mr Sullivan had a watertight alibi for the night in question.

Nevertheless, three days after that date Abernethy stormed aboard Mr Sullivan's boat and attacked him with a piece wood, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.

Mr Sullivan was initially held for a day in police cells after the 45-year- old Owers made the false rape allegations.

However, after police investigated further, Owers was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Stuart Ellacott, prosecuting, said that Owers may have invented the rape to get back at Mr Sullivan.

He said: "On the evidence gathered, and more crucially on CCTV, apart from a lady enjoying a party and having too much to drink, all that happened was Owers circuited around the boatyard, sat down and lay on the pontoon - nothing more than that.

"For whatever reason - a grievance going back a year or two, I know not - she made up an allegation of rape against this man."

The court heard that on June 21 last year, Mr Sullivan was on his boat in Woolston, Southampton, when Abernethy attacked him with a plank.

When Mr Sullivan reported the attack to the police, officers interviewed Abernethy and Owers, and the allegation of rape was made.

Owers claimed she left a pub in Swanwick at about 12.30am on June 18 and was raped by Mr Sullivan on a pontoon at the nearby marina.

In a video interview with police, Owers said: "I did not feel anything, I did not want to see anything, but I know he had sex with me."

But on the night in question several witnesses said Mr Sullivan was at the boatyard until the time Owers said the rape occurred.

The court heard Mr Sullivan told police that his 'volatile' two-year relationship with Owers had ended in 2004.

In a statement read to the jury, he said she was a heavy drinker and a 'free spirit' who would strip naked when she became drunk.

He said he broke all contact with her in 2005 when he realised she was seeing Abernethy and he had erased her mobile number from his phone.

Mr Sullivan said he felt 'sick' when he was arrested on suspicion of rape.

Owers, of Swanwick, denies one charge of intending to pervert the course of justice.

The case continues.