A WOMAN with a personality disorder spent the night with a man she met through a dating agency--then told police he had raped her.

Karen Furminger, 35, of Coldharbour Lane, Kemsley, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice when she appeared at Canterbury Crown Court today.

Judge Jonathan Langdon jailed her for six months but said the exceptional circumstances of her illness enabled him to suspended the sentence for two years.

“As a result of your difficulties in coping with life it seems to me that what you did in some ways was an attention-seeking cry for help," he said.

Robert Ward, prosecuting, told the court Furminger met the man through a dating agency called Silks, on November 2, 2001.

They went for a drink in Whitstable before buying a bottle of wine and going to his home in Ashford. They had sex several times before he drove her home next day. She then called police and claimed she had been raped.

Peter Forbes, defending, said Furminger suffered from an emotional, unstable personality disorder as well as a histrionic personality disorder.

“The way she copes with her difficulties involves her seeking excitement which makes her the centre of attention,” said Mr Forbes.

She was half-way through a year's psychiatric treatment and her situation was improving, he said.