The Policia Nacional have managed to uncover a false, rape claim by an 18-year-old girl in Granada. A passer-by had found her behind a parked car, in front of a high school at 06.45h, last Sunday morning. She told him that she had been beaten and raped. However, when the man went to find her some water, she disappeared, only to report having been raped later directly to the police.

Unfortunately for her, it took the police only 48-hours to unravel her claim, leading to her confessing to having made it up.

Firstly, the man that found her thought it strange that despite her claims of being beaten and raped, she showed no visible signs of an assault. Secondly, she had told him that her boyfriend had dropped her off there, which he thought strange, given the time and place, and because she had also told him that she lived in a Granada satellite town.

But what really put her on the spot was that when the police checked the CCTV footage of a bank across the road, there was no footage of any violence, and to top it off, the man that she claimed to be the aggressor wasn’t even in the country.

There was a recent case in Granada where an innocent man actually went to jail for rape, before the victim finally admitted that she had made it up.

Meanwhile, over in Fuengirola, Málaga, a real rape took place involving a 23-year-old Scandinavian girl in a parking area of the fairground – three suspects have been arrested.

Editorial Note: In the case of the girl in the main story, the police noted that she smelt of alcohol – after all, we’re talking about a Saturday night-Sunday morning, which might indicate that her claim of being raped was to justify her not being elsewhere by that time in the morning. When the passer-by found her and went for water, she disappeared, probably having had second thoughts, but whatever it was that pushed her to making the claim in the first place, made her determined to carry it through and report it to the police.

The question is – and this is admittedly draconian – should people that make false rape claims that could result in an innocent person going to prison for a number of years be sent to prison themselves for the equivalent length of time? The trouble is, the falsely accused person is not the only victim – all the true victims of rape are the victims of this irresponsible behaviour.