|
|
Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
|
Claims a Waikato woman
was raped by a policeman and sexually assaulted by his colleague were
complete fabrications, a judge has ruled. In Hamilton District
Court yesterday, Judge Robert Spear found the 44-year-old woman guilty of two
charges of making a false complaint to police. On April 14 last year,
the woman told police she was sexually assaulted by a female non-sworn police
employee when arrested on December 9, 2003, and that she was raped several
times by the arresting officer two months later. The woman told her
lawyer she had been assaulted three days after a policeman was suspended
after Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas made historic rape allegations. The defendant's claims
sparked a three-month police investigation, led by five Counties Manukau
detectives, which cost tens of thousands of dollars of police resources, said
Detective Inspector Steve Rutherford. Judge Spear said the
woman claimed the constable had black hair instead of blonde, burned a letter
supposedly sent by him and gave dates that did not correspond to the
constable's movements. She also boasted to a neighbour she was having an
affair with the same constable. "It points to a
strange fascination with the constable which I find is not grounded in
reality," Judge Spear said. The victims have
permanent name suppression and the judge ordered that interim name suppression
for the woman continue. He ordered victim
impact statements, pre-sentence and psychiatric reports and remanded the
woman on bail to be sentenced August 8. |
