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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse in NZ |
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Police are taking a stand against
people who make false complaints, after a spate of fictitious accusations
which wasted thousands of hours of police time. Figures released to The Press show
290 people were charged with making false complaints in the year ended June
2004, wasting almost 3000 hours of police time and costing more than $230,000
to investigate. The apprehensions signal a tough
new police stance following a raft of false sexual assault claims last year –
a stance the Police Association says will weed out time wasters. The issue was highlighted on
Friday when a 15-year-old Feilding boy was referred to Youth Aid after
admitting he made up a story about the murder of Marton grandmother Mona
Morriss. Morriss, 83, was sexually
assaulted and stabbed to death in her flat last month. The boy approached
police, claiming to know who killed Morriss. Operation head Detective Sergeant
Tim Smith said two officers spent more than two days investigating the boy's
claims and he was interviewed twice. "He identified a person to us
who was the killer and he had an elaborate story to go with it." The boy was charged with making a
false statement and referred to Youth Aid. In the Christchurch District Court
on Friday, a judge deferred the sentencing of a 21-year-old woman who made
repeated false claims to Christchurch police last year, including rape,
assault and having witnessed criminals preparing to rob a bank. In August,
police issued a trespass order forbidding her from going to the Christchurch
central police station for the next two years. Since June 1998, police have
noticed an overall rise in false statements made, with an average of 444 each
year, not all of which result in charges. Police Association president Greg
O'Connor said last night that police were guilty of not pursuing complaints
hard enough in the past and more apprehensions, rather than warnings, for
false complaints would act as a deterrent. "It is frustrating. It's a
perennial problem and worse than that, the complaint often makes front page
news but the fact that it was false only makes page seven, so it puts a fear
into people that doesn't need to be there," O'Connor said. "Anecdotally, I believe it is
becoming more frequent. When I was a younger detective we were often
criticised for being too harsh on complainers because we expected them to
verify their story," he said. "Then there was a cultural
change in the 1990s where it almost got to the stage where we were expected
to take complainers at face value and I think that's when (more false)
complaints started slipping through." O'Connor said police officers
needed to be more cynical when approaching a new complaint and "elicit
the truth early" to save wasting precious police time. "A good healthy dose of
cynicism is an important part of a police officer's arsenal. "We have a saying in the
police which is `believe none of what you hear and half of what you see' and
I think that is a good way to begin an inquiry." The offence of making a false
complaint carries a maximum three months in jail and a $1000 fine. |
