Footage of Kenan Basic helping Caitlin Gray with her broken down car. Photo / Supplied
Footage of Kenan Basic helping Caitlin Gray with her broken down car. Photo / Supplied
Police have slammed a teenage girl's ongoing "deception" after she repeatedly lied to investigators by telling them a good Samaritan, who helped fix her broken down car, stalked and groped her for hours.
Caitlyn Gray, 19 at the time of the offence, appeared in Bankstown Local Court today where she pleaded guilty to lying about the horrific ordeal that put Sydney dad Kenan Basic in a maximum-security jail for a week.
Gray had claimed to police she was stalked by Basic after he fixed her car on November 22, claiming the 36-year-old lunged at her and grabbed her breast and vagina when she refused his advances.
The teenager sat with her mum in court, appearing downcast and with tears in her eyes as her lawyer Mohammed Suliman asked for the case to be adjourned until next month to give him enough time to obtain a psychological report.
Magistrate Glenn Walsh adjourned the case to June 25 where Gray will be sentenced on one count of knowingly making a false or misleading statement.
"Gray had multiple occasions to inform investigators that she had lied however chose to ignore this and continued her deception."
Gray eventually admitted to lying after police asked her again and again if she made up the story.
The 20-year-old told police she "just wanted (Basic) to go to jail".
"He shouldn't have said that to me. He was disgusting," she added.
Documents seen by news.com.au did not explain exactly what had been said to Ms Gray.
Caitlin Gray will be sentenced next month. Photo / News Corp
Basic, 36, was fired from his job and is going through a divorce after the now 20-year-old told police a horrific and completely made-up story about what he did to her.
All charges against Basic were dropped last Monday after the 20-year-old broke down when pressed by detectives and admitted she'd made it all up.
"I always help people you know, all my life, and this is the first time the snake bit me," Basic told Nine.
"I feel happy because I got my freedom you know."
The made-up ordeal began when Gray was involved in a minor collision in the western Sydney suburb of Bankstown in November.
Gray managed to drive her car to a BP service station just after 6pm on the night of November 22, where Basic pulled up a short time later.
As she tried to fix her radiator, Basic drove up next to her and offered to help the struggling teenager out.
According to court documents, Gray claimed after the car was fixed, Basic offered to follow her in case the car broke down again but she refused. She then told police Basic said she "owed" him a hug for the favour.
According to court documents, Gray then alleged Basic requested oral sex or a hand job. Again she declined.
Basic was accused of following her before the teenager's car overheated and she was forced to exit the vehicle and lift up the bonnet.
This second breakdown, according to Gray, occurred on Milperra Rd in Liverpool.
When she refused his advances, Basic walked up to her driver's side window and tapped on the glass, saying: "Come on, come on. Let's go. What have I done wrong?"
As Basic followed her through traffic, Gray called her boyfriend, "yelling", who used a second phone to call police.
Liverpool Police quickly found a distressed Gray and took her to the local police station.
She provided a statement detailing the entire ordeal and signed it.
The 20-year-old told police she "just wanted (Mr Basic) to go to jail".
Basic was arrested the next day, on November 23, and willingly told police he had helped the teenager fix her car before following her to Milperra Rd in Liverpool to make sure she didn't break down again.
It was on Milperra Rd where Gray claimed she had been groped and where Basic had tried to enter the car, court documents alleged.
Basic was charged with two counts of acts of indecency, one count of incite person over the age of 16 to commit an act of indecency and one count of stalk and intimidate intending to cause fear or physical harm. He was arrested and taken to Silverwater Jail in Sydney's west.
Five days into Basic's terrifying jail term, on November 28, police again met with Gray and re-enacted the ordeal for a video camera.
Investigators painstakingly collected CCTV from the roads Gray claimed she was followed down.
But when they tried to find CCTV footage of the section of Milperra Rd where Gray claimed she was groped, detectives were unable to find anything.
Investigators could not find CCTV that showed Basic assaulting Ms Gray, or footage that showed the young woman lifting the bonnet of he car.
Immediately after police realised they had no CCTV to back up her claim, detectives called Gray and told her.
"Did the incident where the male grabbed your breast and vagina occur?" an investigator asked.
"Yes, I have no reason to lie," Gray responded.
Kenan Basic was wrongfully accused of sexually assaulting Caitlin Gray, when he offered to help her with her broken car. Photo / Supplied
The investigator asked the same question again.
"Yes I'm not lying. I have no reason to lie. He did grab me," she replied.
Police asked Gray if she possibly mixed the streets up — considering the lack of CCTV — and read to her the entire Milperra Rd account. Again she was asked if it was definitely that section of road.
"I think so. It could have been somewhere else. I'm not lying. It happened. I have no reason to lie. I was yelling telling my boyfriend. I'm not lying," Gray responded.
Gray again spoke to police on November 29, at the request of investigators, at Bankstown Police Station.
Just after 5pm inside the station, investigators asked Gray if she was sure of her story.
"Are you sure. It's OK if you have lied. I just need to know the truth," the investigator said.
"I haven't lied. It's the truth," she responded.
"Are you sure because a male is sitting in jail right now as a result of your allegations that he touched your breast and grabbed your vagina. Are you lying?" the investigator pushed.
When asked why she lied, Gray said she "just wanted (Basic) to go to jail".
"He shouldn't have said that to me. He was disgusting."
When asked again why she lied, Gray said she "didn't want to get into trouble".
"I didn't know what to do," she added, admitting, "I would have eventually come clean because I would have had a guilty conscience".
Police then urgently worked into the late hours of November 29, calling senior police, lawyers and Parramatta court "informing them of Gray's lies", the statement of facts said.
An urgent bail application was scheduled for Basic the next day, when he was released from custody. He had been in jail since November spent a week in custody.
"Investigators suggest if it wasn't for the actions of investigators in identifying and viewing the CCTV footage which clearly depicts the lies by Gray, that there would have been a strong likelihood that Basic would have remained bail refused until the completion of this matter as well as the strong likelihood that Basic would have been convicted and faced a term of imprisonment as a result of his conviction," the statement of facts read.
Basic appeared via audiovisual link in November from Silverwater Prison and sobbed as Magistrate Elaine Truscott described him as a "predator".
Basic's lawyer previously told the court he had followed the girl to make sure her radiator didn't keep overheating.
She instead lied and said he had followed her to pursue her.
"She pushed him as hard as he could, he stumbled backwards" and then put his left hand towards her genitals, Magistrate Truscott told the court in November.
Basic, a Bosnian refugee whose father had been killed in the country's civil war, had a pensioner mother who relied on him that he was unable to help while in jail.
