A 28-year-old woman who falsely accused her boyfriend and another man of rape after a petty argument has escaped a jail sentence.

Kerry Wilkinson, of Wood Avenue, Folkestone, walked free from Maidstone Crown Court after a judge was urged to allow her to continue with a programme to help her with her drug problem.

Branding the young mother wicked, he told her: “You richly deserve to go to prison today for a very long time indeed.

“It may well be the only way to wake you up to what life is meant to be all about.”

But he went on to impose 24 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for two years for perverting the course of justice.

The court heard that Faruk Ahmed and his friend Gazi Ahmed spent several hours in custody and were subjected to intimate samples being taken as a result of the rape claim.

Judge Philip Statman said of their treatment: “It is utterly humiliating.

“The gravity of the offence is not the number of hours being taken up by the police, it is that two men have been kept in custody for 19 hours.”

Wilkinson and Faruk Ahmed were living together in Folkestone when Gazi Ahmed gave him a lift home on November 18 last year.

Laura Charleton, prosecuting, said the two men could see through a window of the house that Wilkinson was doing some decorating dressed only in her underwear.

Faruk Ahmed went in and they argued over money. He and his friend then left.

But said Miss Charleton: “The defendant then ran down the road behind them, still only dressed in her bra and knickers.”

The friends went to Gazi Ahmed’s home, where he lived with his wife, three sons and two daughters.

After a few minutes, Wilkinson, accompanied by others, banged on the door. “She started to tell anybody present that Faruk Ahmed, who worked at an Ashford restaurant, and Gazi Ahmed had raped her,” said the prosecutor. “The police arrived shortly afterwards.”

Wilkinson repeated the rape allegation to officers.

She then declared that she did not want any further action taken, but the two men were still arrested on suspicion of rape.

Edmund Burge, defending, said it was conceded that the consequences of the rape claims were “unspeakable”, but added that Wilkinson had no idea what would follow when she made the allegations in the heat of the moment.

“She is someone who acts first and worries about the consequences of her actions later,” he said.

“But she has spent most of her life in care. She has had four children taken off her into care.”

Mr Burge said Wilkinson, who admitted perverting the course of justice, was making real progress and prison would be absolutely catastrophic.

Judge Statman replied: “She has cried rape. Two men have been placed in custody as a result. That is a very serious matter.”

Wilkinson, dressed in denim dungarees, wept as he told her: “Perverting the course of justice undermines justice and justice must be upheld.

“They had to bear the ignominy of that detention. It had a profound effect, not just on them, but on their families. All down to you and your wicked conduct.

“It is about time that you started to understand what it means to take responsibility for yourself. Excuses have run dry.”

But the judge said he believed the public would be best served if Wilkinson continued her rehabilitation.