Dad 'invented' tsunami death

2005-12-13 22:10

London - A judge on Tuesday convicted a man of wasting police time by inventing a story about losing his 19-year-old daughter in the Southeast Asian tsunami a year ago.

Philip Bosson, 39, told police that he flew to Sri Lanka after his former girlfriend called him to say their daughter Kayleigh had been killed in the disaster on December 24.

He also claimed that his ex-girlfriend had lost her new husband and two children to the killer waves, prosecutors told Plymouth magistrates' court in southern England.

But inquiries revealed that Kayleigh did not exist and none of the former girlfriend's family had been involved in the disaster, prosecutors said.

Police said hundreds of officers had spent time investigating claims about the fictional Kayleigh, and Devon and Cornwall police alone spent more than £6 000 on the case.

Convicting Bosson, District Judge Paul Farmer said he was "sure that the reports by this defendant to the police were false. What I cannot do is give any explanation as to why."

He told Bosson that he was considering jailing him, and released him on bail with orders to appear in court again on January 11.

- SAPA