Girl, 15, in trouble for lying about rape

The decision on whether to institute criminal proceedings against the teen for making a false statement under oath, knowing it to be false and for defeating the ends of justice is still pending, police spokesperson Captain Shooz Magudulela said.

The teenager claimed she had gone to a concert with a group of friends in June, but stayed behind when they went home. She then met the alleged rapist and went with him to fetch a friend,Newcastle Advertiser reported.

She was then apparently left alone at the man’s house, and, upon returning, the man found the girl was still at his home and had cut her hair.

Magudulela said the teenager used the man’s cellphone to send a text message to her family saying she had been kidnapped, but the man stopped the message from going through.

“She attempted to entice him to extort money from her father, but he had refused to do so. He took her and left her near the hospital,” Magudulela explained.

While this was happening, the girl’s mother was frantically searching for her. She received a ‘please call me’ message from an unknown number, and when she called it, she was told her daughter was at Madadeni Provincial Hospital.

At the hospital, the girl told her mother she had lost her cellphone at the show and an unknown woman had offered to help her. She claimed she was allegedly led to a vehicle outside the show grounds where several men overpowered her, hit her over the head and drugged her before loading her in their vehicle.

She told her mother she had woken up in an unknown house the following day in a pool of her own blood and that her hair had been cut.

The Newcastle Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit investigated the matter and it was initially speculated a trafficking syndicate might have been involved.

Through police investigations, the man the girl had met was traced and questioned.

“The suspect did not have sexual intercourse with her at all,” Captain Magudulela said.

After further police questioning, the girl revealed the truth; she had never expected the police to solve the case and was actually hoping they would not.

– Caxton News Service