Woman's false rape claim bad for victims, says judge

A young woman who admitted making a false allegation of rape was told by a judge yesterday that her actions would make things difficult for women coming forward with genuine complaints.

Judge Miriam Reynolds also told the accused that she had ruined her own life and brought shame on herself and her family.

Sligo Circuit Court heard that Wendy Griffin (24), with an address at Gateway Apartments, Ballinode, Sligo, had been a student at the local IT when she made the allegation. Ms Griffin, who pleaded guilty to making a false report that she had been raped at Envy nightclub, Sligo, on October 13th, 2005, said in the witness box that she believed that something had happened to her on the night in question.

The court was told that CCTV footage which tracked Ms Griffin's movements in the club that night established that she had been there for only 11 minutes and that she had not been in the toilets where she alleged the attack took place. Judge Reynolds said the amount of Garda manpower and the expense involved in the investigation could not be lost sight of.

When women come forward to make complaints of this nature "by and large they are treated quite well", added the judge. Such matters were taken so seriously now that they were dealt with in the Central Criminal Court.

"This makes it difficult for women who want to come forward and make genuine complaints," Judge Reynolds told the accused. Urging Ms Griffin to continue to "move on and to have a fruitful life", she added that she would consider applying the Probation Act.

"This is not to send out a message that this behaviour is acceptable but to send out a clear message that justice must be tempered with mercy," said Judge Reynolds. She adjourned sentencing to December 11th.

The court was told that Ms Griffin did not make an allegation against any specific individual and gave gardaí only a vague description of her alleged assailant.

Defence counsel John Shortt SC told the court that it was "unfortunate" that the accused, who was in a distressed state on the night she made the complaint, could not get the medical attention she required anywhere in the northwest. The court heard that she had refused to go to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin for an examination that night, although she did go the next day after making a statement at Tallaght Garda station.

The judge was told that Ms Griffin, a native of Tallaght, had been celebrating her 22nd birthday with friends on the night. She had a party at home, later visited a pub in Sligo and then went to the nightclub.

Ms Griffin told gardaí that when she went to the toilet in the club she was followed by a man who locked the door of the cubicle and raped her. When gardaí told her later that CCTV footage from the club suggested that this could not be true, she had said: "Why would I make something like that up?"

The accused told the court that she now accepted she had not gone into the toilets in the club. She wept as she told the judge: "Something happened that night and to this day I do not know what it was." She said there were gaps in her memory from the night.

She was receiving counselling from the rape crisis centre and was also seeing a clinical psychologist and hoped to establish if something had happened which she had suppressed.

Ms Grffin, who has no previous convictions, said she had abandoned her studies at Sligo IT. She had already been suspended from her job and would now be let go.

She had hoped to pursue a career in social work but this would not be possible with a conviction.