A soap actor who accused a girl of spiking his friend's sambuca with a date rape drug at a Hull nightclub has been jailed.

Kristopher Ian Mochrie, 24, who once appeared in TV show Brookside, laced a drink belonging to his friend Daniel Latimer – a star of Channel Four's Shipwrecked – with date rape drug GHB.

It happened when Mr Latimer was a guest DJ at the Sugar Mill nightclub in Princes Dock Street, Hull, on September 30 last year.

When Mr Latimer, 24, of Liverpool, collapsed and nearly died Mochrie lied to police that two female students had done it because they "fancied" them.

It happened just a couple of hours before 21-year-old student Chloe Leach, of Cottingham, also collapsed in the same club and died.

He even implied to Mr Latimer's mother that Chloe had been involved.

Prosecutor Richard Woolfall said: "Latimer's mother was concerned to find out what had caused Chloe's death.

"She asked a nurse and she described what Chloe had been wearing.

"This defendant said: 'That's the one who passed me these drinks', inferring the deceased as involved in spiking his friend's drink.

"Several weeks later Mrs Latimer had a picture of Chloe in the paper and she had asked the defendant if that's the one he meant had spiked her son's drink and he confirmed it."

Mochrie denies he ever blamed Chloe, who had nothing to do with the case.

Chloe died of natural causes and her death was unrelated.

The police initially believed the cases were linked and for three weeks two innocent female University of Hull students were wrongly investigating for drug dealing and for causing Chloe's death due to Mochrie's statement.

Mochrie sobbed in the dock as Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, sitting at Hull Crown Court, said his actions were "deliberate and selfish" as he jailed him for two years for supplying class C drugs and perverting the course of justice.

Mochrie had pleaded guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing.

The judge said: "Telling lies to the police is a serious matter.

"You effectively pointed the finger of responsibility for drug peddling at two young girls."

He only admitted his role when he was arrested on December 8 last year.

The girls had been cleared after three weeks after CCTV footage showed they were innocent.

His barrister Trevor Parry-Jones said he is sorry for what he did.

Mr Latimer was last month cleared of supplying date-rape drugs at the nightclub after the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence.