A young woman who admitted having a threesome with a married couple then crying rape claims she did not understand what she was pleading guilty to as she is suffering from a “rare language disorder”.
Hannah McWhirter was due to be sentenced yesterday at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for wasting police time.
The 21-year-old had previously admitted lying to officers by claiming she had been sexual assaulted after her boyfriend found out she had been unfaithful.
However, her lawyer, Sam Milligan, resigned from acting for her in April after McWhirter spoke to social workers following her guilty plea and maintained she was innocent.
She appeared in court again yesterday with fresh legal representation – who claimed she was suffering from a “semantic pragmatic disorder”.
Defence agent Ian Houston said his client’s condition was “so severe” she had misunderstood what was being relayed to her by her previous solicitor.
He said he believed McWhirter may have “unknowingly or unwittingly” admitted wasting police time.
Mr Houston said she now wanted to withdraw her guilty plea and said the Scottish Legal Aid Board had “sanctioned” a supplementary psychologists report which could back up her claims.
The court heard her condition was so rare it may take some time to identify someone with the adequate knowledge to provide an expert opinion.
Mr Houston said his client may have to travel to England in order to find someone who was familiar with the symptoms.
Sheriff Graeme Buchanan said he was “bound” by the sanction of the legal aid board to continue the case for additional reports.
McWhirter will return to court later this year.
In April the shop worker admitted lying to police and falsely accusing Dionne and Shaun Clark of sexually assaulting her.
The couple were questioned under caution, detained for hours and remained under investigation for a month.
The court previously heard McWhirter and Mrs Clark, 30, had become close friends when they both worked together at the same city department store and that McWhirter had met up with the couple in a Travelodge on July 13, 2013, while her boyfriend was on a night out.
When the relationship between the two women started to deteriorate, Mr Clark, 35, told McWhirter’s partner about the threesome. It was at this point that she went to the police.