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The Southland Times
February 23, 2002
Officer questioned over false complaint decision
The hearing of an Invercargill woman accused of crying wolf was yesterday
adjourned until Wednesday.
The 37-year-old student is defending a charge of making a false rape
complaint at Invercargill on June 19.
Earlier in the week, Judge David Holderness heard the details of the alleged
rape, where the woman claimed two men broke into her home, attempted to make
her swallow an overdose, then raped her.
Despite the woman's assertion the men entered through the rear door, police
surveillance footage showed no one approaching or leaving the house other
than the woman's mother.
The officer in charge of the inquiry, detective sergeant Dave Evans, was
cross-examined extensively by counsel Phil McDonald on his decision to charge
the woman with making a false complaint.
Mr McDonald suggested the decision was based on a poor-quality surveillance
tape. Mr Evans disputed that, saying many aspects had led to the charge.
Amongst police concerns was the lack of signs of struggle, particularly in
the small bathroom where the alleged rape took place.
Whether the offenders could have entered and left by the front door was
investigated by police, not because of anything the woman had said, but
because that was the way a thorough scene examination was conducted, Mr Evans
said.
From the woman's initial statement, he was treating her complaint not just as
a rape but as an attempted murder, Mr Evans said.
Told the woman would give evidence that she had both let the two men in then
locked the front door behind them, Mr Evans replied: "All this statement
is inextricably woven together and you can't just pull out a couple of untidy
strands, if I can draw the comparison, the rope breaks. You really have to
say that the whole statement is a load of garbage.
You just can't pick out a couple of untidy areas." Mr Evans said he knew
the woman was receiving psychiatric treatment and rang her psychiatrist the
day she was charged.
The woman was the first of three witnesses to give evidence in her defence.
She told the court of an earlier rape complaint made in 1998.
While resident in Invercargill since laying that complaint, she had had
numerous prowlers and intruders on her property.The men who broke into her
house on June 19 appeared to know that the July 1997 rape had been accepted
as genuine and were also aware she had received an official apology.
"I had enough evidence to proceed to a civil matter against the
offenders," she said.
The prowlers threatened to rape her if she did not drop the civil matter, she
told the court.
Asked whether she had created an elaborate scene before the alleged rape, the
woman replied. "No. There were two people in the house that night that
raped me." Cross-examined by sergeant Alan Christie, the woman said she
had deliberately omitted from her initial statement that one of the men had
identified himself to her.
"I was told if I didn't willingly have sex with them, they were going to
stay in the home and rape my Mum." She said she had left out that
information as she did not want her mother to know and also believed police
would not investigate the complaint properly if they knew who the man was.
She did not recall naming a second man, more likely to be known to police,
during the medical examination and therefore could not explain her rationale
in doing so, she said.
She turned down police offers to put her property under surveillance because
she did not want Invercargill police knowing her routine, the woman said.
The woman denied having turned down a friend's offer to install surveillance
on the property, saying that equipment had not been available.
She maintained her story that two men had entered through the rear door of
the house.
"I still recall them coming around the back, even though it is not on
video. But they were in the house, I was raped, I was injured, but they are
not on that DVD (compiled from the surveillance video) then I have to accept
that I let them in," the woman said.
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