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NZ Herald
March 17, 2003
Nurse charged with 'false complaint'
by Rosaleen MacBrayne
Detectives investigating two reported attacks on nurses in the Tauranga
Hospital grounds have charged a woman with making a false complaint.
The 36-year-old was arrested on Saturday and will appear in the Tauranga
District Court on Wednesday.
She alleged she had been grabbed from behind on March 8 while leaving work
after a late shift, but managed to struggle free.
The complaint followed one from another nurse also assailed in the hospital
carpark a week earlier.
She had been seized as she walked to her car but her screams scared the
attacker off.
Detective Sergeant Todd Pearce said yesterday that police had no reason to
doubt the veracity of the first incident.
It now appeared that the original case might have been a one-off attack, he
said.
However, Tauranga police were continuing to patrol the hospital grounds at
night.
Hospital management had also stepped up security.
Mr Pearce said the weekend arrest was the second in a fortnight for an
alleged false complaint.
Ten days ago, a 42-year-old Greerton woman was charged after reporting two
days earlier that she had been badly assaulted by a stranger when she
answered her front door late at night.
"These attacks are treated very seriously and investigated
thoroughly," said Mr Pearce.
Detectives, meanwhile, no longer believe there is a link between the hospital
assault and a reported attack on a rest-home nurse a week ago.
The middle-aged woman said a youth had stopped her by stepping out in front
of her car at the intersection of 13th
Avenue and Devonport Rd when she was driving to
work about 9.50pm.
Two other men then wrenched open the driver's door, threatened her with a
knife and tried to pull her from the vehicle.
The woman said she put her foot down on the accelerator and drove away.
Police have still to re-interview her.
No arrest has been made for a January 23 attack on a woman walking to work
along Cameron Rd
about 5.45am.
She was grabbed around the neck by a man who had followed her for several
blocks, but she kicked him in the groin during a struggle and he ran off.
Police have warned women not to be complacent and to use common sense.
They should lock their car doors when driving alone, stick to well-lit areas,
take a companion when walking at night, and be wary of any suspicious behaviour.
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