Leicester mother avoids jail ‘by a whisker’ over Primark breastfeeding lie

A mother has avoided jail “by a whisker” after lying about a Primark security guard taking her baby from her while she was breastfeeding.

Caroline Starmer, 28, falsely claimed on Facebook that a guard took her nine-month-old daughter from her on July 13 at the store in Humberstone Gate, Leicester.

The post went viral and her story made international headlines, but her lies were found out when the store checked its CCTV.

Sentencing her to eight months in prison suspended for two years for perverting the course of justice, Judge Simon Hammond said Starmer’s lies were “carefully planned and orchestrated for financial gain”.

Leicester Crown Court heard Starmer had visited the store with her twins and said the guard had forcibly removed the baby from her breast.

She wrote on social media: “My confidence is shot, and my poor daughter hasn’t been herself all afternoon.”

The post, on the campaign group Free To Feed’s page, was shared more than 5,000 times and featured in news bulletins as far afield as Japan and New Zealand, prosecutor Tina Dempster told the court.

Stay-at-home mother Starmer repeated the allegation the following day in police interview, and said the security guard in question was Asian.

Leicester Crown Court heard there was only one Asian security guard, Mahomad Ismial, on duty in the store that day and the allegations caused him “great stress and upset” until he was exonerated of any wrong doing.

Starmer, of Leicester, later told police she had been told to make up the story by a friend in a bid to sell the story and make money.