Crime Novel Inspired Woman to Falsely Accuse Priest of Rape

The Telegraph
April 16, 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9998572/Crime-novel-inspired-woman-to-falsely-accuse-priest-of-rape.html

A priest has been cleared of rape after a court heard the woman made up the allegation based on the violent books of a popular crime writer.

Priest John Taylor, who has been found not guilty of rape Photo: SWNS

Father John Taylor, 49, found himself accused of raping the woman after meeting his accuser on Facebook and going on a dinner date which ended in sex.

The woman reported him for rape and he lost his job, found himself shunned by parishioners and had his car vandalised three times.

He was also banned from seeing his two young children who live with his ex wife Zsanett, 34, in her native Hungary because of the allegation.

Father Taylor was due to stand trial for rape on Monday but the case collapsed minutes before it was due to start.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that the woman, in her late 20s, told police she identified with the characters in the novels by Martina Cole which feature violent rape.

The most recent book she had read was 'The Ladykiller' which tells of a victim being raped by a man who grabs her hair with one hand and undresses her with the other.

The woman, in her late 20s, had accused Father Taylor of a similar attack and Cole's other novels also portray priests as abusers.

The woman told police the catholic priest had pinned her on his sofa and forced to have sex but DNA evidence proved she had never been on the couch.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it was offering no evidence against Father Taylor and he was formally found not guilty of rape.

Prosecutor Christopher May said: "The forensic evidence undermines the prosecution case and therefore the Crown offers no evidence."

Jonathan Simpson, defending, told the court: "She said in her statement that she identified with the characters in the novels by Martina Cole.

"They all feature violent rapes."

After being cleared a relieved Father Taylor, from Margate, Kent, said: "I met her on Facebook and I thought we were just going on a normal date.

"Yes we had sex, but it was consensual.

"Two days later I was arrested and accused of rape.

"I think there are three possible reasons why she accused me. One is that she already had a boyfriend.

"Another is that she thought she would get thousands of pounds of compensation from the church.

"Or the third that she was worried that she had told me too much private information about her family that she didn't want to get out.

"She wrote in her police statements that she had read the Martina Cole books. I think the sick story lines got in her head and she used them to base her made-up story on."

He added: "This is the worst crime a man can be accused of because you are automatically prejudged.

"This has done my health in for 14 months just waiting. I have put on weight and even gone grey."

Father Taylor, who is a community priest in Thanet, Kent and chaplain at Margate Magistrates' Court, said he hoped to return soon to his charity work.

He added that he was now planning legal action against the woman.

He said: "As the person being accused your life is over.

"People cannot just make stories up like that. She has to face up to what she has done.

"I want the police to take action against her for wasting officers' and the court's time."