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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
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A second false rape allegation
in a week has police fuming at the lost time and taxpayer money involved in
the wasted investigations. A woman, 26, will
appear in Taupo District Court on Monday, charged with making a false
complaint to police after phoning 111 in a distressed state about 4.40am on
Thursday. Detective Sergeant Andy
Allan said patrol cars were immediately sent to look for the woman, who was
found lying face down on the shore of Lake Taupo, her body partly in the
water. Her clothes were ripped and she appeared to be unconscious. "There were
factors at the scene which indicated this woman had been the victim of a
vicious sexual attack," he said. While being rushed by
ambulance to Taupo Hospital, she told police she had been violated by an
unknown man. A police doctor
examined her and she was admitted to hospital. "After
investigating this matter for the entire day, it became apparent that there
were too many inconsistencies in her story and she was brought in for
re-interview," Mr Allan said. The woman admitted to
police that it was a hoax and she had made the scene look like a sex attack. "She had even gone
to the extent of creating drag marks in the sand and she ripped her own
clothing." Police were infuriated,
because staff had been called out at 5am and had dropped all other
investigations, he said. "This is all at
the taxpayer's expense and totally a waste of everyone's time and
resources." The false claim follows
a hoax in Wellington earlier this week. Wellington Independent
Rape Crisis coordinator Georgina Thompson cautioned against assumptions that
a police decision to stop investigating a case automatically meant a claim
was false. "In reality false complaints of rape are extraordinarily
rare, they occupy a tiny percentage of cases." |
