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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
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A Waikato woman has
been jailed for making false complaints that she was raped by a policeman and
sexually assaulted by his colleague. Sally Marie Inglis, 44,
was sentenced to five months jail at the Tauranga District Court yesterday
after being found guilty of two charges of making a false complaint to
police. Judge Robert Spear said
the offending was "at the very highest end of the scale" and a
prison sentence was required. "You need to spend
some time in prison to contemplate why you are back there." Judge Spear said the
sentence, two-and-a-half months' imprisonment for each charge, was influenced
by the woman's continued insistence that the claims were true despite clear
evidence to the contrary and by the devastating effect they had had on the
victims. 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 female victim,
spoken to after the sentence, said it had been the most traumatic experience
of her life, and while prison was appropriate, it would not "give us
back what she has taken from us". Prosecutor Simon Moore
said the case was made more serious by the cynical timing of the complaint -
three days after Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas made allegations of historic
rape by police officers. When Inglis was
convicted in June after a four-day defended hearing, Judge Spear complimented
police on the way the woman's allegations had been treated but said "it
became increasingly obvious" the claims were untrue. He said police had been
able to track the constable's movements on each day the woman alleged the
attacks happened and in one case he was hundreds of kilometres away at his
parents' house. Inglis was ordered to
undergo assessment and treatment for psychological issues and alcohol abuse
and denied leave to seek home detention |
