Kenan Basic helped Caitlin Gray, then a teenager, with her car. Photo / Supplied
A good Samaritan, who spent a week in a maximum-security jail after he was accused of indecently assaulting a teenage girl, plans to sue her and the police after he was cleared of all charges.
Kenan Basic, 36, lost his job, was served with divorce papers from his wife and spent a week in Silverwater Jail in Sydney's west after he was accused of the horrific crime on November 22 last year.
Caitlyn Gray, now 20, pleaded guilty to making up the entire ordeal to police in Bankstown Local Court yesterday. She will be sentenced for the ongoing "deception" on June 25 after her lawyer obtains a psychological report.
Gray stuck by her made-up story — involving claims Basic stalked her, asked for sexual favours and groped her vagina and breasts — until November 29.
Basic had been in jail since November 23 after he was arrested by police and refused bail. Police worked through the night on November 29 to make sure Basic was released from jail the next day. He was cleared of all charges earlier this month.
"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 footage — 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.
"Yes," Gray responded.
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.
"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 from Silverwater Prison in November and sobbed as Magistrate Elaine Truscott described him as a "predator".
While in jail, Basic, a Bosnian refugee whose father had been killed in the country's civil war, was unable to help his pensioner mother who relied on him.