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Lesbian accuses innocent stranger of rape to win back lover
By BEN FARMER - Last updated at 00:08am on 24th March 2007
A lesbian falsely accused a complete stranger of rape in a bizarre bid to win back her former lover.
Zoe Davydaitis, picked the innocent man from a police line-up even though he had broken his back in eight places and had to wear a body brace.
Her false accusation led to Phillip Young being charged with rape, despite his protestations that his horrific injuries from an accident meant the attack was impossible. He went on to receive death threats, was assaulted and eventually attempted suicide.
But on Friday a court heard Davydaitis was a "self-centred attention seeker" as she was jailed for 18 months after admitting perverting the course of justice.
Mr Young's ordeal began in July 2004, when Davydaitis, 24, claimed to have been brutally raped on a piece of waste ground in Bedford as she walked her dog.
In a 17-page statement she gave a detailed account of her assailant and the attack.
Detectives immediately launched a major hunt for her attacker and put out his description and an appeal in local papers and posters.
![[image loading]](http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/03_02/LesbianMan_228x342.jpg)
Philip Young: Falsely accused
At the same time Mr Young, 49, was recovering from a horrific fall. That spring he had broken his spine in eight places after falling off the roof of his third floor flat while trying to get through a skylight after locking himself out.
Surgeons inserted three metal rods into his back, held in place by 96 screws, and he had to wear a body brace and walk with crutches.
However he was arrested after a member of the public noticed his description fitted that of the rapist.
After he was questioned, Davydaitis picked him out from a picture ID parade and despite his protestations that it would have been physically impossible for him to have raped her, the Crown Prosecution Service decided he should be charged.
After Mr Young's name appeared in local newspapers, he received hate mail, stones were thrown at his windows and he was attacked in the street and suffered a broken arm. His ex-wife even stopped him seeing his two young children.
Luton Crown Court heard the truth only began to emerge months later, when a former girlfriend of Davydaitis told police she had seen her "flirting outrageously with some girls" in a pub the night after the alleged attack.
Another of her friends told police Davydaitis had admitted she had made up the allegation in the hope of getting back together with her former lover, a woman referred to in court as Kerry.
The friend said Davydaitis told her that she had been drinking and had used a hammer to strike the inside of her thighs to create the bruise marks needed to make her story convincing.
Davydaitis also later admitted to police she had made up an allegation of indecent assault against a man in 1999 after he had upset her and she wanted revenge.
The case against Mr Young was eventually only dropped after Davydaitis withdrew her complaint.
Passing sentence Judge Barbara Mensah told her: "This was a particularly nasty calculated and malicious lie which persisted over time."
She went on: "You picked Mr Young out of an identity parade and he was entirely innocent."
Judge Mensah said even after making the initial allegations she had the opportunity not to pick him out. As a result Mr Young had suffered months of "anxiety and stress".
Jailing her, Judge Mensah told Davydaitis how her victim had been branded a rapist by his own family and some of his friends, and was now paranoid about being anywhere near a woman when on his own.
Speaking outside court, Mr Young said the allegation had ruined his life overnight.
He said: "My life came to a standstill.
"First I was getting hate mail letters that started off with 'Die you rapist', and stones would be thrown at my windows day and night. I was even attacked on one occasion when a man called me a dirty rapist and pushed me over on my crutches and I broke my arm.
"In the end I didn't dare leave my flat. I stayed in for four weeks and then only went out after dark. It was awful and I got so low.
"My ex wouldn't let me see my children and things got so bad that I even tried to commit suicide.
"At first I had thought the truth will come out but the nightmare just went on and on."
He said Davydaitis had written to him to apologise - but that, to him, her apology was meaningless.
