British teenager jailed over taxi rape lie

A rap-on-the-knuckles sentence though. The guy could have got years

A teenager who falsely accused a taxi driver of rape has been jailed after the man proved his innocence by producing a recorded conversation of her repeatedly asking him for sex. Seonad Campbell, who has three A levels and hoped to go to university, ordered a taxi after becoming drunk at a party three weeks after her 18th birthday. When she arrived at 4am at her family home in East Cowick, near Goole, East Yorkshire, she told her father that she had been raped. He immediately contacted the police.

The driver was able to establish his innocence when it emerged that he had used his mobile phone to make a video recording of Campbell during their journey from Pontefract, West Yorkshire. The footage showed the teenager repeatedly asking the driver to have sex with her. He said that he had agreed to her request and the couple had consensual sex in a lane near her home.

In court she pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was jailed for eight months by Judge Roger Thorn, QC, who told Campbell that her lies might have had devastating consequences

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Kenny Richey free at last

Forcing a plea bargain on him is a disgrace, though. Just a miserable attempt to save themselves the embarrassment of a compensation payout

For more than two decades, he was told by prosecutors that he would leave prison only in a coffin, at one point coming within one hour of being strapped into Ohio's electric chair. But Kenny Richey's long fight against execution was finally over last night after a judge in the US ordered him to be freed. He is expected to fly home to Scotland today.

The 43-year-old Scot's legal struggle ended where it had begun, in the same Ohio courtroom where he was sentenced to death in 1987 for killing two-year-old Cynthia Collins, as the state dropped murder and arson charges and accepted a plea bargain. During the 30-minute hearing Mr Richey spoke only to answer "yes, sir" to Judge Alan Travis as the plea bargain was formally explained to him. The judge said: "I'm ordering the sentence as proposed . . . time served. Mr Richey can be released."

In August last year the sentence was overturned with a retrial on the same charges scheduled for March. However, during yesterday's plea deal he admitted to reneging on a promise to babysit Cynthia on the night she died - leaving her to die alone when fire broke out - but not to killing her by setting the fire himself.

On his release he thanked his supporters. When asked what he was going to do now, he said: "I'm going for some nookie. I've not had any for 21 years." Speaking to The Times earlier, he said: "They tried to kill me, they tried to break me, and they nearly won - they nearly had me in that death chamber so many times. But in the end, it's the truth that wins.

"I've spent all my adult life behind bars and walking free is the dream that's kept me going. I'll go home and hug my mum so tight she won't know what's hit her. I'll lie on my back in the grass and gaze at the big sky and feel the wind in my hair - what's left of it - and let out the biggest roar you've ever heard. And then I'll start my life all over again."

Prior to the judge ordering Mr Richey's release, the atmosphere in the courtroom was ignited by an outburst from Cynthia Collins's aunt, Valerie Binkley. As she read out a victim impact statement, Ms Binkley told Mr Richey that he would "burn in hell". Neither of Cynthia's parents were in court but a statement was read out on behalf of her father, Robert Collins. He wrote: "Cynthia did not deserve to die in such a way. She was my baby girl who I loved, and still do with all my heart. I just wish Cynthia could appeal her death and come back to life."

Mr Richey will be reunited with his mother, Eileen, at Edinburgh airport tomorrow, after spending a night with his brother Steven, 37, who lives in Ohio. Speaking from her home in Edinburgh last night, Eileen Richey said that she was anxious for her son's health but overjoyed. She said: "We'll be glad he's coming home. I'm going to give him a big kiss and hold him for a long time because I haven't been able to do that for over 20 years. I'm looking forward to it."

Mr Richey's lawyer, Ken Parsigian, who has handled his case pro bono for the last 15 years, said: "This deal represents a complete capitulation by the state. What Kenny said he would never do is plead to murder or arson - and he's not."

Mr Richey has been told by prosecutors that they have received death threats against him and his lawyer. As part of the deal, in which he pleaded no contest to charges of child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter, Mr Richey has been ordered to leave Putnam County, Ohio, where the crime occurred, within 24 hours. "There's a lot of strong feelings against Kenny in that place and the authorities don't want to take any risks. We didn't fight for nearly 22 years just to get into an incident when we get him out," said Mr Parsigian.

But adjusting to a world that he last saw when Ronald Reagan was the US President and Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister could be overwhelming, Mr Parsigian admitted. "Kenny's excited, but a little anxious. He's coming back to a world he doesn't recognise," he said.

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