A woman who falsely claimed to have had a gun pulled on her by a man she had a brief relationship with has been jailed for 14 months.
Allicja Smith, 20, told police she had been to collect items from the man’s house in Ramsbottom and saw the gun on the bed. She claimed to have taken a photo of the gun but the man picked it up and pointed it at her, saying “move or I’ll shoot”.
She gave her name as Lacey Harrison and said there had been domestic abuse in their four month relationship, which had ended in November 2022. As a result, a police officer was deployed tp guard her home and the man was arrested on suspicion of a firearms offence, prosecutor Martineh Jabbari said.
The following day, detectives from Lancashire Police visited Smith’s home and she showed them a photograph of the handgun. When they checked the info on the photo, they saw the image was a screenshot and asked Smith for the original.
She scolled through the camera roll but was unable to provide an original image, Preston Crown Court heard. When challenged, Smith became aggressive and confrontational, saying: “F***ing detectives, think you know everything. Get out of my house.”
She ran to the bedroom and slammed the door behind her. At the police station, officers spoke to the man she had accused who said her name was not Lacey Harrison, but Allicja Smith. He said he was not even at home at the time she claimed he had pulled the gun on her.
He was released under investigation and on April 6 gave a statement telling officers he had received threatening voice and video messages including pictures of a machete. He had downloaded the photo of the gun from the internet and saved it as his profile picture as a ‘warning’.
Smith was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice and her mobile phone was examined. Cell site information showed she had been in Blackburn and her victim in Haslingden at the time she claimed the incident had taken place.
As a result of Smith’s lies, the man was under police investigation and spent time in custody. Officers forced entry to his home and his door was not replaced for two months, the court heard.
Defending, Sharon Watson said Smith was a “complex young woman” who had a troubled upbringing and significant mental health difficulties. She had a ‘grim and miserable upbringing’ and was completely isolated and alone at the age of 20. She pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Gioserano said: “It gives a judge no pleasure to have to sentence someone so young for a serious offence such as this and it is all the more concerning in your case because of all I know about you. As far as I can see this is utterly irrational behaviour.
“I can’t understand for the life of me why you turned on this man in the way you did in February 2023 when your relationship was very short – although I appreciate it could have been intense. You hadn’t seen him at all for a number of months. In no sense do I have to understand why you did it in order to pass an appropriate sentence.”
He sentenced Smith, of no fixed address, to 14 months detention in a young offenders institute, saying: “I can only hope that upon your release things get better for you.”
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