A WOMAN made up “wicked” claims she was raped after having sex with a stranger in the loos at Basildon station, a court heard.

Sarah-Jane Hilliard, 20, told police she spent the evening with two friends at the Beehive pub, Basildon, before moving on to Liquid nightclub at the nearby Festival Leisure Park, where she was approached by a man she described as a “little scary”.

At around 3am she said she left the club and got into a taxi with her friends and the man, but when they approached the train station she asked the taxi to stop so she could use the toilets.

Hilliard then said while the man walked into the station with her, she went into the toilets alone.

Yesterday Andrew Jackson told the jury at Basildon Crown Court: “She said she could remember going into one of the cubicles and sitting down.

“Then she said she could not remember anything else after that. She said next thing she remembered was waking up on the floor of the women’s lavatory with her trousers and knickers around her ankles.”

Mr Jackson said police soon discovered Hilliard had lied about being at Liquid nightclub and she had in fact spent the night at the gay club Colors.

There she was captured on CCTV “kissing and canoodling for quite some time” with a man who was later identified as Grant Bowers.

He said: “Not surprisingly the police turned up on Grant Bowers door step. He was arrested on suspicion of raping the defendant. He was put in a police car, taken to a police station and locked up.”

Mr Bowers, who was never charged with any offence, told police he met Hilliard in Colors and he shared a taxi with her and her friends.

He accepted escorting Hilliard into the toilets, but said moments later the defendant came on to him and they had sex in a cubicle.

Mr Thompson said police also found a number of texts Hilliard, who maintains she was attacked, sent to Mr Bowers, which show she planned to lie about their sexual encounter.

He said just over a week after making the allegation she filled in a claim form asking for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board because she was the victim of rape.

Mr Thompson added: “The prosecution say that this was quite simply a wicked allegation to make and that the lies she has told have been exposed.”

Hilliard, of Luncies Road, Basildon, denies one charge of doing an act tending and intending to pervert the course of justice on July 27 last year.

The trial continues.