A YOUNG mum has been jailed for 15 months after admitting that she had cried rape after meeting a soldier on a night-out.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard how Cheryl Moss had claimed 19-year-old Martin Devine had forced himself on her in an alleyway next to Bournemouth’s Toko nightclub in St Peter’s Road.

After taking a taxi home, Moss, a 26-year-old mother of four from Cunningham Place, Bournemouth, got a friend to report the rape allegation to the police.

She stuck to her story even after almost an hour’s CCTV footage showed she had actually made the first move on November 7 last year before the couple had consensual sex.

The Ministry of Defence joined forces with Dorset police in a bid to track down Mr Devine who was on a gunneries course at Bovington Camp and due to fly out to Afghanistan in March this year. Prosecuting, Heather Shimmen told the court how Mr Devine’s account of what happened on the night mirrored the contents of the alleyway video.

Moss, a former shop worker and cleaner, gave Mr Devine her phone number and he sent her a text message the next morning unaware that she had already reported him to the police.

When told of the film’s contents, Moss continued to maintain her accusation but failed to turn up for a police interview. A month after making up the story she dropped her complaint and apologised for wasting police time.

Defending, Anne Brown said: “This is a classic case of someone who has done something when heavily in drink, then overwhelmed by feelings of enormous shame and cannot believe how they have behaved.

“My client’s immediate concern is for her children and she wants to make a full apology to the Ministry of Defence. She feels guilty for putting Mr Devine in jeopardy.”

Ms Brown stressed that her client was not aware of the enormity of her actions, adding: “When she started to realise how serious it was, it became incredibly difficult for her to face up to what she had done.

“She accepts her crime deserves a prison sentence, but it also punishes her children and will have a devastating impact on them.”

Sentencing Moss, who pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, Judge Samuel Wiggs described the case as “extraordinarily sad”.

He told sobbing Moss: “What you did is very serious. You know only too well from press and TV reports how concerned the public is about allegations of rape and how often courts and juries have to grapple with this.”

Judge Wiggs added: “The enormous expenditure of police time could have been used elsewhere to much greater effect.

“The worst effect is on the man you accused. He was never arrested but it must have been very frightening for him, knowing that he might find himself charged.

“Even if he had been acquitted, it’s extremely difficult to hide away as people say ‘no smoke without fire’.”