AN 18-year-old man who claimed three men had sexually assaulted him in an alleyway has been cautioned for wasting pollce time.

An investigation launched by Kent Police to discover who the alleged offenders were has found the allegation to be false.

The teenager had told police he was was walking through an alley that runs alongside the railway tracks between Ramsgate Road, Ramsgate, and Rosemary Avenue on June 15 when three men assaulted him.

Det Chief Insp Rob Vinson said today: "We take all allegations of sexual assault extremely seriously and dedicate a lot of time and resources to thoroughly investigating them and bringing offenders to justice, as we did with this case.

“But false and malicious allegations won’t be tolerated and will be uncovered by my officers, and then the person responsible for the false allegations will face prosecution.”