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Evening Post
January 16, 2002
Brash warns on publicity
An abduction and sexual attack complaint that
proved false had caused unwarranted bad publicity for Porirua, Mayor Jenny
Brash says.
She has pleaded for all parties involved in future
incidents to "tread carefully before bursting into print".
A 16-year-old girl claimed recently that she was
abducted from Ascot
Park by three men and
sexually assaulted. A police investigation found she'd made it up. The
teenager was referred to Youth Aid. She may yet be charged with wasting
police time.
Porirua CIB boss Detective Senior Sergeant Mike
Oxnam today defended the publicity about the original complaint. "People
make false complaints for all sort of reasons . . . they're often more
difficult to investigate than the real thing," he said. "We have to
treat them seriously because it's a serious crime. An investigative tool, and
a very powerful investigative tool, is the media and we rely on that."
Ms Brash said she felt sorry that a young woman
felt the need to lodge such a complaint, and didn't want to make her
situation more difficult.
"However, the fact is that her claim led to
some very negative publicity that was completely unwarranted. . . . Porirua
city has received publicity that was unfortunate, to say the least."
She said the woman was put in "an even more
invidious position" by the publicity after the complaint was ruled
false. Porirua was a safe place to live.
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