A Scotland woman who faked a pregnancy following a one-night stand has been sentenced to community service after she pled guilty to “causing fear and alarm.”
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis sentenced Jaclyn McGowan, 36, of Perth and Kinross, to 150 hours of community service. McGowan claimed in the summer of 2019 to have gotten pregnant and continued the lie for nine months after Jamie Aitken dumped her, the Herald Scotland reported Wednesday. (RELATED: Chrissy Teigen Writes Heartbreaking Article After Loss Of Son Following Pregnancy Complications)
She has been ordered to carry out community servicehttps://t.co/SxqIyDfaWS
— The Herald (@heraldscotland) February 24, 2021
McGowan told police she had taken a pregnancy test and then reportedly claimed to have had a miscarriage one week later, according to the Herald Scotland.
McGowan and Aitken met on Tinder and spent the night together in a hotel. They messaged each other several times before the relationship ended, the Herald Scotland reported.
The court learned that McGowan’s rouse not only applied to Aitken but his family as well. She reportedly contacted members of Aitken’s family to discuss the “baby,” allegedly sharing photos with his mother and even showing up at his brother’s workplace where she appeared to be heavily pregnant while wearing a “prosthetic baby bump,” the outlet reported.
By March 2020, McGowan had made a full confession to the police that the pregnancy was indeed fake, according to The Courier.
The defending Solicitor Mike Tavendale told the court that it was a “one-night stand” and “quite obviously an unsatisfactory one,” The Courier reported.
“Jamie Aitken was extremely drunk and it was immediately regretted by my client and that was simply reinforced in the days following, particularly when she found out she was pregnant,” he added.
“Mr. Aitken made it abundantly clear to her he did not want a child and wanted nothing to do with it,” Tavendale continued. “From that point matters go downhill.”
“You pleaded guilty to causing fear and alarm over a period of nine months, so when I say it is on the less serious side, none the less I have to bear that in mind,” Sheriff Foulis told McGowan, according to the Herald Scotland.