Woman may face prosecution over false rape claim
The woman withdrew the allegation yesterday afternoon.
A laneway just yards from one of Cork’s busiest streets was sealed off after the allegation was made.
Detectives spent several hours carrying out forensic examinations of the scene and making house-to-house inquiries before the 20 year old woman admitted she had made up the story. She had initially claimed she was attacked after becoming separated from her friends outside a nightclub in the city centre.
The woman had told gardaí that at around 12.30am she walked away from the nightclub through Washington Street and turned down Anne Street, a laneway to the rear of a number of fast food outlets. The woman claimed she had been pushed to the ground and raped.
The woman was later examined by medical experts at the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit at the South Infirmary. She provided gardaí with a description of an alleged attacker, which was circulated to the media.
A garda spokesman confirmed that the woman had withdrawn her claim. He said gardaí were looking at the possibility of preparing a file in relation to a charge of making a false statement.
Last year, another young woman was given the benefit of the probation act after pleading guilty to a charge of making a false claim of rape. A court heard that a Co Cork woman became detached from a group of friends going to a nightclub in Cork city. She then made a spur of the moment decision to text her sister that she had been raped.
The woman made two statements about the false rape to gardaí but, after discrepancies were noted in her story, she confessed.
