SLAP ON THE WRIST FOR AN EVIL WOMAN

But for a bit of luck she could have sent 4 innocent men to jail for years



A young woman whose accusation of rape led to four men being arrested and questioned for 36 hours has been jailed for six months for making the story up. Cinzia Sannino, 18, made the claims after getting drunk during a night out in Cardiff city centre and waking up in a house with four strangers. She claimed that she had been drugged and raped by at least two of the men. But she withdrew the allegation after one of them produced a video made on his mobile phone of her naked and performing a "lap dance" before inviting them to have sex with her.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that the only motive for Sannino's accusations appeared to be that she wanted a lift home. Chris Lewis, for the prosecution, said: "At seven in the morning she phoned police asking for a lift home. When the operator told her the police were not a taxi service she started to cry and said she had been raped."

Police began an investigation, even reopening a former police station to act as the inquiry team's headquarters. The operation, which also involved three doctors and a forensic science team, soon led to the arrest of the four men aged between 20 and 28.

Mr Lewis said: "The men were interviewed and told police remarkably similar stories. They said she began to lap dance for them of her own invitation and removed her clothes until she was entirely naked."

Sannino - who describes herself on her website as "a wild girl who likes to have fun" - initially told police that she had danced for the men but had kept all her clothes on. The court was told that she had been out with friends in Cardiff and had got drunk. She had met the men at a bar and agreed to go home with them.

Peter Wormald, for the defence, said: "This young woman went out and drank to an excess that she wasn't used to. She is a young woman completely overawed by what she has brought upon herself."

Judge Roderick Evans told her: "I have no doubt you had voluntarily, consensual sexual intercourse with each of them.You allowed them to touch you intimately. Fortunately, someone recorded part of your behaviour on his mobile phone. "Four men were arrested, interviewed and locked up for 36 hours based on your allegations. Some people would say that your conduct was more than foolish and ill-advised - it was evil."

Sannino, of Llanishen, Cardiff, admitted two charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice. She was sent to a young offenders institution for six months. [She'll be out in a fraction of that time]

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