A woman who falsely accused her friend’s son of rape has been remanded in custody after she failed to attend a psychiatric meeting which could determine what punishment she receives.
Kelly Harwood, who admitted fabricating the rape allegation about the younger man after she drunkenly slept with him, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday where she was due to be sentenced.
But Sheriff Williams Summers was told that the 43-year-old had still not attended a meeting to asses her mental health, so could not access the necessary details to impose his sentence.
Harwood’s case – which has been on-going for more than a year – was continued last time it called after she failed to meet the social worker who was preparing her background reports.
She also twice failed to appear in court before her guilty plea was tendered. On one occasion a warrant was issued for her arrest.
At her last appearance, Sheriff Summers warned Harwood he would lock her up if she caused any further delays.
When he heard yesterday that she had still not complied, he said he had no option but to lock her up until she attended the vital meeting.
“If I do not remand you, I have no confidence that this case will ever be dealt with,” he said.
The court had heard how Harwood had drunken consensual sex with the 30-year-old man on a camp bed which had been set up in her friend’s kitchen on May 6 last year following a party.
But afterwards she realised she had betrayed her friend and called the police, claiming the woman’s son had raped her.
Harwood was checked over at Woolmanhill Hospital in Aberdeen, while her victim was subjected to an intrusive medical examination.
The man was also interviewed under caution at a police station – an experience he described as “embarrassing” and “sickening”.
When Harwood, of 61 Cloverhill Crescent, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, was being interviewed about her alleged ordeal days later, she admitted she had lied because she felt guilty for sleeping with her friend’s son.
Sheriff Summers yesterday heard how Harwood was suffering from an undiagnosed medical condition, which was causing her to have “dark days”.
He said it was no excuse for her non-compliance.
Harwood will return to court at the end of the month.