An aspiring model who sparked a £25,000 police operation after faking her own kidnap and murder escaped a jail sentence today.
Rebecca Campion, 20, from Merseyside, claimed she made up the incident in an attempt to escape from her abusive ex-boyfriend.
Campion, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, was given a six-month sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to pay £65 costs.
Liverpool Magistrates Court heard how Campion sent a number of text messages to her mother claiming she had been kidnapped and held captive by a gang of men in a white van.
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One text message read: “Your girl is dead and on Crosby Beach.”
A huge police operation was launched and the force’s helicopter was sent to scour the beach near Campion’s home.
Her current boyfriend was also arrested and held for 24 hours on suspicion of kidnap.
On January 27 this year - three days after she was allegedly kidnapped - Campion returned home. She later admitted to police that she had invented her kidnap and murder and was arrested for making a false claim.
Mike Healey, defending, told the court that his client made up the claims as she wanted her ex-boyfriend to believe “she had disappeared”. She claimed he had beaten her, subjected her to degrading abuse and made threats to her and her family.
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“At this time she felt there was nowhere else she could turn, she felt the only way to deal with it was for him to believe she had disappeared, vanished. That is why she committed this offence,” Mr Healey said.
He added: “The offence was not an attention seeking offence but I think you could describe it as a cry for help. She is extremely remorseful and she apologises to police for her actions.”
The court heard that Campion, who is unemployed, had no previous convictions but had received a fixed penalty notice for making false allegations of assault in August last year.
Campion refused to comment as she left court