A woman lied about being raped by a stranger after arguing with her boyfriend on a night out, a court heard.

Lauren Skinner, 18, had been out with her partner and the pair argued on the way home.

He left her near an underpass to make her own way home and she later made a "throwaway" comment about being raped by a stranger when she returned home.

Despite making the accusation, Lauren told her then-boyfriend that she did not want to call the police.

Her former partner took matters into his own hands and made a 999 call to the police in the early hours of July 11 last year.

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He reported that his partner had just returned to his house and told him she'd been raped. He also told them he had gone looking for the alleged attacker but wasn't able to track him down before calling the police.

Lauren refused to speak to the call handler on the phone but did speak to two police constables when they got to the property later that evening.

Police spent more than £2,000 investigating the complaint, including cordoning off a path and trawling through CCTV.

The young woman was spoken to twice by Wiltshire Police – including two detective constables – and underwent a forensic examination by trained nurses.

However, she later admitted making up the allegations and said she didn't tell the police she'd lied as she didn't want to get in trouble.

She is said to have been remorseful, apologised to the officers and accepted she had wasted police time. She pleaded guilty to charges of wasting police time at Swindon Magistrates Court.

A Wiltshire Police spokesperson said: "Lauren Skinner made the false claim following an argument with her boyfriend during a night out.

"He left her alone on a path just off the subway underpass under Drakes Way in Swindon where she later claimed that she had been accosted by a stranger who raped her."

Mark Glendenning, mitigating, said his client was no longer in a relationship with the partner she made the accusations to.

He said she found herself "on a rollercoaster" after making a "throwaway" remark to her boyfriend that she'd been raped.

"Every step down that road [made] it much more difficult to recant and go backwards," he added.

Skinner was now back living with her parents, receiving mental health support and had returned to college.

She had no previous convictions or cautions, Magistrates imposed a two-year community order with 100 hours of unpaid work. She must pay £40 costs and a £95 victim surcharge.

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