He stopped to help a woman with her broken down car. Then she falsely accused him of sexual assault which wrongly landed him in jail and ruined his marriage. Photo / Supplied
He stopped to help a woman with her broken down car. Then she falsely accused him of sexual assault which wrongly landed him in jail and ruined his marriage. Photo / Supplied
A young woman, who put a man in a maximum-security jail for a week after falsely accusing him of stalking and sexually assaulting her, has faced court over the crime.
Caitlyn Gray, 19 at the time of the offence, fronted Bankstown Local Court today appearing downcast as she sat with tears in her eyes.
The now 20-year-old is accused of lying for days in November last year over the way Sydney dad Kenan Basic behaved after he spent more than two hours helping her get her damaged car back on the road at a petrol station in western Sydney.
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.
Gray had claimed the father-of-one had lunged at her and grabbed her breast and vagina after she refused his advances as "payment" for helping with her car.
In court, Magistrate Glenn Walsh ordered a full sentencing assessment report to be submitted.
Gray pleaded guilty to lying about the horrific ordeal last month when her lawyer Mohammed Suliman asked for the case to be adjourned until today to give him enough time to obtain a psychological report.
Walsh on Tuesday ordered Gray to attend Campbelltown Community Corrections office within the week and for a full sentencing assessment report to be completed.
The court heard Gray had no criminal record and that she was regularly seeing a psychologist in November last year — before she made the accusations against Basic.
Gray's legal team submitted a number of documents to be added into her sentencing report including a letter from her mother, character references, job history, a psychological report and notes taken by a counsellor.
Gray has also written an apology to Basic, another of the documents submitted in court today.
Clinical notes taken by Gray's psychologist in November were also submitted.
Gray will be sentenced on August 7 after she pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly making a false or misleading statement.
The made-up ordeal that Gray pleaded guilty to began when the 19-year-old 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 Mr 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.
He stopped to help a woman with her broken down car. Then she falsely accused him of sexual assault which wrongly landed him in jail and ruined his marriage. Photo / Supplied
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.
Mr Basic helped Gray for hours. Photo / Supplied
The pair shared a hug after he helped her. Photo / Supplied
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.
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.
"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.
"Yes," Gray responded.
When asked why she lied, Gray said she "just wanted (Mr Basic) to go to jail".
"He shouldn't have said that to me. He was disgusting."
Kenan Basic's life was ruined over the accusations. Photo / 9 News
Court documents did not explain what had been said to Gray.
When asked again by police 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 Mr Basic the next day, when he was released from custody after seven days behind bars.
"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.
Basic plans to sue Gray for $1 million in damages and is also launching legal action against NSW Police, 7 News previously reported.
It's understood Basic wants NSW Police to pay the $15,000 he spent on legal fees to fight the false charges.
Basic, a father to a little boy, said the ordeal had made him hesitant to help women.
"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."
