KEY POINTS:
A Rotorua teenager concocted a story about being abducted, raped and robbed so her boyfriend wouldn't find out she had had sex with another man.
Chaavarne Antoinette Dick, 17, appeared before Judge Robert Spear in the Rotorua District Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to one charge of making a false complaint to police.
The teenager had told police she was raped at knifepoint after running out of petrol in the early hours of Sunday December 28.
She was arrested earlier this week and police are now requesting reparation of $3002 for wasting police time.
Outside court on Thursday, Dick said she had lied because she didn't want her boyfriend of six months to find out she'd had sex with another man.
"I regret what I did but I didn't want my boyfriend to know ... I just didn't know what to do," she said.
The Rotorua kitchenhand said she had gone through a few problems in the weeks leading up to her making the false claims.
"There was a lot of family stuff going on. There was a lot of arguing. I was just finding it all too much to handle. I was feeling a lot of emotions at the time like anger, sadness and loneliness," she said.
According to the police summary of facts, Dick went to a party after work and when she arrived home about 1.30am, her boyfriend was in the garage waiting.
To explain being so late, she told him she had run out of petrol and three young Maori youths dragged her into Linton Park and raped her. She was tearful as she told her story, the summary stated.
The couple then woke his parents and told them, and Dick had seemed to be in "emotional shock", crying as she told them the story.
She added that when the youths freed her, two police officers arrived and gave her petrol but offered her no help.
This angered the family, who rang police to complain. Police arrived a short time later and she told them it was members of a Ngongotaha gang who raped her. Dick claimed she tried to use her cellphone but they took it off her and headed off towards Clayton Rd.
Her story changed about who gave her fuel. She said it was young people her partner disliked.
It changed again when detectives interviewed her the next day. This time she said an elderly man siphoned petrol out of his fuel tank to give her.
During their investigation police discovered Dick was at a party before the alleged rape and had left with a man. It was then discovered the pair had had sex and Dick finally told police she lied to maintain her relationship with her boyfriend.
Her lawyer, Tim Barclay, told the court the couple were moving to Napier. Dick is to be sentenced in the Napier District Court on February 25.
THE COST
* Four police officers at $25 an hour for four hours - $400
* One police photographer at $38 an hour for two hours - $76
* Two detectives at $35 an hour each for 24 hours - $1680
* Medical examination - $850
- ROTORUA DAILY POST
