A Soshanguve woman begged police not to arrest her for perjury on Saturday after she lied about being raped to get anti-retroviral treatment following unprotected sex with her boyfriend, said police.
Clinic staff refused to treat her until she reported the incident to the police, said Pretoria police spokesperson, Captain Piletji Sebola.
So, she told detectives she was raped by a man she met next to a school in Soshanguve at 9pm on Friday night, he said.
On investigation, however, they found discrepancies between her version of events and those of her family, who said she was next door at her boyfriend’s home at the time of the alleged rape.
He admitted that she had spent the night there and that they had had sex, initially using condoms, but later without protection.
Police suspect that when she went to a local clinic at 6am — where she first made the rape claim — it was to obtain anti-retroviral therapy.
The woman later broke down, admitting she had laid a false rape case, said Sebola. Despite her pleas not to be arrested, police took her into custody for perjury.
Detectives would have ended up running around looking for a ”ghost rapist” because of her serious allegations, he said, hoping her arrest would serve as a deterrent to anyone thinking of doing the same thing.
The woman will remain in custody at the Soshanguve police cells until at least Tuesday when she would appear in Soshanguve Magistrate’s Court, said Sebola. – Sapa