A former York prison inmate tried to get her revenge on one of the prison officers by falsely crying rape against him, a court heard.

Christine Ferguson, 32, claimed the officer gagged her, tied her hand above her head, tried to have oral sex with her and raped her one morning in her room at Askham Grange Prison hostel, said James Goss QC, prosecuting.

Following her allegation, the officer was suspended from duty and had to undergo four hours of police questioning.

"The outcome of their inquiries was to prove beyond doubt that no such offence could have been committed that morning and there was no opportunity for the officer to have been in her room that morning," alleged Mr Goss at Doncaster Crown Court.

"The prosecution say she wasn't (raped). She deliberately made a false allegation to exact revenge upon (the officer) for treating her as she perceived to be unfairly."

On the day she was allegedly raped the officer had transferred her back to the more stringent conditions of the main prison because of her behaviour at the hostel.

She had been very angry and said she would get him and that he would be hearing from her solicitor, claimed Mr Goss.

Ferguson, of Gladstone Street, Mountain Ash, Mid-Glamorgan, denies perverting the course of justice. Mr Goss said Ferguson was sentenced to two-and-a half years in prison at Merthyr Crown Court for grievous bodily harm.

In December 1997 she was transferred to Askham Grange and later started work at MacDonalds, Colton, on the A64 while living in the prison's hostel.

But on April 1 she signed out of the prison at 1.30pm without authority when she was not due to start work until 6pm.

At a prison disciplinary hearing the next day the officer docked two days of her remission and removed other privileges, but allowed her to stay at the hostel.

Later, staff at the prison discovered she had requested time off work against hostel rules.

On April 8, the officer ordered her return to the main prison. Ferguson was very angry, refused to go and said she would get her revenge.

Shortly afterwards Ferguson was transferred to Foston Hall Prison in Derbyshire, a closed prison, where she made her rape complaint against the Askham Grange officer.

She claimed she had been raped before lunch on April 8, but later withdrew her complaint. Following her arrest on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, she claimed the rape had happened on April 7.

Mr Goss alleged Ferguson was working at MacDonald's on April 7 and that the officer had been in meetings during the morning of April 8.

The trial continues.

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