A WOMAN who sparked a police investigation and widespread media appeal after falsely claiming she was brutally raped at knifepoint has avoided jail.

Nikita Forrest, 26, called 999 alleging she had been attacked at Maryhill Road while walking home from her boyfriend’s house.

But, days into questioning and after an intimate medical examination, Forrest confessed she had lied about her ordeal.

She even cut up her clothes to make it look as though she had been assaulted.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, Forrest, from Springburn, Glasgow pled guilty to wasting police time by “temporarily depriving the public of their services” between February 23 and 26, 2015.

Sheriff Bill Totten handed her a community payback order for two years with the conditions she is supervised for that period by social workers and “engages with mental health services”.

Forrest must also carry out 180 hours of unpaid work in the community within nine months.

The court heard that around 2.55am on February 23, police received a 999 call from Forrest claiming she had been raped at knife point 20 minutes earlier.

Defence lawyer Tracey Mulholland said that her client is a different person to who she was at the time of the offence with “significant changes” in her life.