Woman falsely accused Facebook stranger of rape

Published: 2013 June 26 12:29:20 (5206 Views)

Philip McDonald, a 26-year-old father-of-one, was plucked out of the blue by a total stranger who spotted his picture on Facebook and decided to falsely accuse him of rape.

In an act of inexplicable viciousness, 31-year-old fantasist Linsey Attridge chanced upon a photograph of Philip and his then 14-year-old brother James and used it to back up a story she'd concocted.

She'd done it, apparently, in order to win some sympathy with her boyfriend, when she feared his affections were waning.

It led to Philip, a wholly innocent chef, being harassed in the street and shunned at the school gates.

He is still fighting, two years later, to salvage his battered reputation.

Philip told the Daily Mail, 'It's frightening,' he says. 'We have no idea why she picked on us.'

It is Philip's partner Kelly Fraser, 27, who described their experience.

'It was like our lives were a deck of cards and someone just threw the whole lot up in the air and that was our lives for two years,' she says. 'We have only just started to pick up the pieces now.'

It was only two weeks ago that Linsey, a single mother, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where she admitted a charge of wasting police time.

Her punishment was 200 hours of community service and a social services supervision order.

Neither she, nor the police, have apologised to Philip or James.

The story has led many to ask, quite rightfully, how this could have happened.

Linsey claimed two men had broken into the home she shared with her boyfriend Nick Smith while he was away playing football.

The men, she said, subjected her to a brutal attack — she even punched herself in the face and ripped her clothing to make her tale more credible.

When, a few days later, two plain clothes police officers walked into the city centre cafe where Philip worked, he assumed they wanted some breakfast.

'Then they shouted: "Philip McDonald", and I said: "Yeah, that's me," and they said: "It's CID, we want to speak to you",' he recalls.

Philip, totally unaware that he was in any trouble, was unperturbed. It was only when the detectives said there was an investigation that also involved his brother and that they needed to go to the police station that he began to panic.

'They told me stuff in the car about the allegation of rape. I was completely shocked and burst into tears.'

Unknown to Philip, his brother, a student at a residential school for teenagers with behavioural problems, had been taken in handcuffs from his mother's home half an hour earlier.

He recalls how frightened he was during the five hours in which he was questioned, fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA.

It took two months for the fiction she had concocted to fall apart, during which time Linsey submitted herself to the rigours of forensic investigation.

Throughout this process, Linsey sobbed, shook with fright and even made herself sick to hoodwink the female friend supporting her through her 'ordeal'.

Kickboxing instructor Nick Smith, 32, gives a disbelieving shake of his head as he recalls how he was taken in by his ex-girlfriend Linsey, who spent more than a year living under his roof while he supported her and her daughter.

'I look back and see so many things and think: "What an idiot",' he says.

'The things she put me through, the things she put those guys through. They didn't deserve that. No one deserves that. There are very few people she didn't convince.'

Strangely, it was through Facebook that Nick first met Linsey.

- DM

Tags: Facebook,

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