Man who invented ‘attack’ sentenced

A MAN who invented a story about being attacked in his Huntingdon home cost the police and NHS more than �1,100, a court heard.

Jake Moore called the emergency services and told them he had been assaulted by an intruder wielding a claw hammer, tied up with tape and forced to consume epilepsy pills.

He later admitted the story had been a fabrication and pleaded guilty to wasting police time at a court appearance on November 24.

Twenty-year-old Moore, of Sapley Park, had been in the midst of a “psychotic episode” at the time of the incident on June 6 last year, according to psychiatric reports.

He was given a 24-month conditional discharge when he was sentenced at Huntingdon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of �85.

Moore said that a man had entered his house at 12.30am and struck him in the stomach with a claw hammer, apparently looking for Moore’s brother.

The man then tried to hit Moore in the head with the hammer and though Moore said he managed to block much of the force the blow, he was unbalanced.

Moore told police the intruder then dragged him to the kitchen and gave him epilepsy tablets, which Moore ate one at a time, causing him to feel drowsy and for his vision to blur.

The intruder then taped Moore’s hands, ankles and mouth, tied a USB cable around his neck, and wrote a message to Moore’s brother on his t-shirt.

Moore told police that the loose tape around his wrists allowed him to reach the phone and dial 999 with his little finger.

Police officers and paramedics arrived to find Moore bound and gagged on the kitchen floor. He was taken to Hinchingbrooke Hospital and kept in overnight.

As a potential aggravated burglary, the police’s response included eight officers, two crime scene investigators, an investigating detective constable, a reviewing detective sergeant and a detective inspector.

Cambridgeshire Police’s estimates the cost of Moore’s claims at �653, while the NHS put the cost of his treatment at �453.

Prosecutor Andrea Fawcett told the court on Thursday that officers quickly began to doubt Moore’s account because of its inconsistencies.

No alien DNA was found on any of the gaffer tape, and each of Moore’s wrists had been tied separately and inexpertly. There was no sign of forced entry, the epilepsy medication was found intact in the medicine cabinet, and the phone used to call police was out of reach from Moore’s position on the floor.

Elaine Havord, mitigating, said that had Moore admitted his offence earlier, he could have saved resources and been dealt with by way of a fixed penalty or caution.

She added: “He has been very worried about the outcome of this hearing, as he doesn’t know if he will be able to go on and do the university course he would like to.”