Otago Daily Times
September 2, 1998
Woman faked attack injury
NZPA
Wellington: A woman
ripped off her own bra and scratched her breasts, chest and neck with a key
before laying a false complaint of indecent assault, Lower Hutt
District Court has been told.
The woman (20) pleaded guilty to perjury and having made a false declaration at
the trial of the man she had accused of attacking her.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Tony Rickard-Simms said the man she had accused had
lost his job, been held in custody for 15 days and put to the expense of a
trial.
The woman, who wept in court as the facts of the case were read out, had name
suppression continued until sentencing in the High Court at
Mr Rickard-Simms told the court the woman had gone to Hutt
Valley Polytechnic on August 14 last year, claiming she had been dragged from
her car and attacked by a man who had approached her a week earlier.
She had sworn statements about the alleged attack and had given evidence at the
man's trial earlier this year. It was only after police received a call from a
member of her family that she had admitted her statements had been false.
She said she had made the accusations to gain the love and attention of her
family. She showed no remorse for the man she had accused, Mr Rickard-Simms
said.
Police had spent 250 hours on the inquiry at a cost of more than $17,500. The
trial had cost $5000 and witnesses' expenses $4500.
He urged the lifting of name suppression as the man's family was very concerned
that no media attention had been given to the case.
However, Judge Chris Tuohy accepted defence counsel Lynda Stevens' argument for continued suppression.
He said imprisonment was likely and psychiatric reports indicated that the
woman was at risk of impulsive actions.
The matter would be dealt with shortly and he did not want to pre-empt the High
Court on sentencing issues.