A north-east dad who was falsely accused of rape after he spurned a woman’s advances has spoken for the first time about how the despicable lie ruined his life.
Susan Stewart, 35, is currently serving a nine-month sentence after she was convicted of wasting police time at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in October 2022.
She told detectives she had been sexually assaulted by the man following a Christmas night out in Fraserburgh on December 16 2018.
But it was all a pack of lies and Stewart had actually concocted the story after the man told her he was more interested in dating her cousin.
Now her victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, has described how the malicious accusation has affected his life, reputation and confidence.
‘She ruined my life’
The 35-year-old dad-of-three said: “She ruined my life.”
He says his ordeal started after a chance encounter with Stewart in Tesco, where she was working at the time.
A week later he said they were both out in Fraserburgh when Stewart started “following me from pub to pub”.
“The next day she let on she had spent the night with me,” he said. “I stopped replying to her messages.”
The court was told Stewart sent messages where she tried to pursue a relationship with him but became jealous when he appeared more interested in speaking with her cousin.
When Stewart told the man to stop contacting her cousin, he refused to do so and she sent him a message which read: ‘well, we will see what the police have to say’.
It was then she visited a local police station and made the false rape claim.
‘We will see what the police have to say’
The court was told the allegations prompted a “serious sexual offence enquiry that placed a high demand on police resources”.
Thankfully for her victim, who was arrested at his workplace by police and taken to Fraserburgh Police Station, he had kept Stewart’s threatening messages.
He said: “After the police came to my work, took me and told me what for I said ‘yes, I am totally aware’ because I had all the messages and was expecting it.
“My reputation was damaged, especially at work. I could not finish my shift and didn’t even have time to collect my jacket and bag.
“At this point, I was seeing her cousin and she was just jealous.
“I told them this and showed them all the messages on my phone. They took me at 3pm and I was home by 7pm. They cleared me.
“As soon as they saw the messages they said ‘we believe you, we just need to take a statement’.”
While in police custody, he made a complaint about Stewart’s false allegation of rape against him.
‘An extremely nasty thing to do’
Stewart wept in the dock and cried out for her children as she was sentenced to 14 months behind bars last October.
Sheriff Ian Wallace told her at the time: “To make an allegation of this kind is an extremely nasty thing to do.
“Where people make false allegations like this it makes it more difficult to prove genuine cases of rape.”
In December 2022, Stewart won an appeal to have that sentence cut to nine months.
Her victim – now happily married – branded that decision “a disgrace”.
“I am not the type of man who would do bad things to anyone, especially a woman,” he said.
“But if a man was capable of rape, and I know there are some men that are, they would get something like 10 to 20 years.
‘Her sentence was far too low’
“Even half of that amount would have been deserved for her.
“Her sentence was far too low, far, far too low.
“There’s been no apologies, no remorse, nothing.”
With Stewart due to be released in the coming months, Stewart’s victim says he’s “just trying to avoid her and hoping everything will be fine”.
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