A YOUNG man has been acquitted of raping a teenage girl after the 'victim' admitted that she had lied.

The girl, from Sevilla, who was 14 on the date she claimed to have been sexually assaulted by the accused and his friend, in October 2007, says the man she accused had been boasting about having slept with her.

Given that she had not had any relationship or intimate contact with the youth, then 18, she became upset about these allegations and told her mother that he and another youngster had forced her into a car and driven her to a strip of wasteland before taking her clothes off and assaulting her.

When it was revealed that the girl had invented the story, she claimed she had not been 'in her right mind' on the day in question.

She said she had taken an overdose of pharmaceutical drugs because her parents had grounded her, a male friend had broken up with her, she had lost seven mobile telephones in the space of a year, and the youth's bragging was the last straw.

Police began to suspect her story may not be true when various aspects of it did not add up.

However, her claim to have taken an overdose was proved to be correct, since hospital staff confirmed they had flushed out her stomach on the day in question.

But there was no medical evidence suggesting that the sexual assaults had taken place.

The youth was facing a fine of 6,000 euros and 13 years in prison, but was acquitted this weekend.