Woman who lied about rape says ex-partner abused her

The victim continues to suffer mentally and emotionally from the year-long ordeal. Photo / File

A woman who falsely claimed her ex-partner raped her now says she lied because he was abusing her.

The 36-year-old was due to be sentenced today on perverting the course of justice, but the matter had to be put off for a disputed facts hearing.

In an affidavit filed on September 20, the defendant claimed the victim was physically and psychologically abusive to her. She also said she tried to withdraw her fake complaint during a phone call to a detective.

This runs counter to the summary of facts she pleaded guilty to earlier this year, which detailed how she only withdrew the complaint a year after making it, after police challenged her on inconsistencies in her statements.

The woman, who has interim name suppression to protect the victim's identity, laid the complaint after the man ended their relationship.

During the relationship he suffered "constant emotional blackmail", the victim said in his impact statement.

He said the defendant was angry he ended their relationship.

She gave a three-hour recorded interview to police in which she gave the date and time for the alleged rape, which she said happened at the couple's home.

But police later uncovered inaccuracies in her allegations, such as documents provided by the victim showing he was travelling on a bus at the time.

Phone records showed the defendant herself would not have been at home at the time either.

According to the summary of facts, a year after giving the interview she was invited back to the police station, where she told police she no longer wanted them to investigate as she had forgiven the victim.

When confronted with evidence her story did not add up, the defendant claimed she was traumatised and upset and might have got the timings wrong.

However, a few days later she came back to the police station with a written statement confessing she had lied, saying she was angry he had ended the relationship, and accusing him of stealing a few of her personal items.

Today in the Wellington District Court, Judge Denys Barry outlined the allegations in the defendant's latest affidavit, including that she had been abused by the victim, that she was the one who ended the relationship, and that she had tried to withdraw the complaint at an earlier time.

Judge Barry warned the woman's defence lawyer to caution her against committing perjury, saying she would not want to dig a bigger hole than she was already in.

The matter has been remanded to November for a dispute facts hearing.

Judge Barry did not want the victim to be called to give evidence, saying he had already been "traumatised by a false complaint hanging over his head for over a year".

Making him give evidence on "the minutiae" of the relationship could further re-traumatise him, he said.

The victim's mother earlier said they had gone through "a year of anguish" after the complaint was laid.

"We are, as you know, a tight family, and we were distraught to see what you had done to him," she said in her victim impact statement last month.

"I think you decided to do the worst possible thing short of physically injuring him that you could think of ... I believe you would have quite serenely sent [him] off to prison if the evidence hadn't outed you as a liar."

The mother also said the defendant had made it harder for other women who had actually been sexually assaulted to be believed.

"You should be ashamed of what you have done to the credibility of women everywhere."