Wasting Police Time

 

January 19, 1976: A woman is allegedly attacked in her home in the village of Scissett near Huddersfield. The story makes the front page of the HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER the following day: Search for tramp after attack on Scissett woman

The reader is told: “POLICE are looking for an elderly man, possibly a tramp, after a housewife was assaulted in her Scissett home”.

The victim is said to be 35 years old, but on January 23 the same paper reports, again on its front page: Police call off search wherein the reader is told:

“POLICE have dropped their hunt for a man who allegedly indecently assaulted a Scissett housewife.”

This is because “We are no longer looking for a suspect,” said Chief Superintendent James Hobson.

The woman is not a housewife, and her age appears to have been misreported. When she appears in court on May 4, it is reported Sheena Ruth Greer Cook claimed to have received phone calls from her attacker; she also faked injuries, which she said later were caused by a fall in her kitchen. This anonymised report appeared in the Guardian, May 5, 1976, page 5. The title is slightly misleading because this was not an actual rape allegation, but it is not as misleading as her claims. She may have been lonely and depressed but she had a boyfriend, probably past tense after this.

Whatever, the 37 year old spinster pleaded guilty to wasting police time. Huddersfield magistrates were told 42 officers had worked on the case.


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