Woman who said she fought off rapists after NYC Pride made the story up, say police
A woman who said she was the victim of an attempted rape when leaving NYC Pride last weekend, made up the story say police.
The unnamed 23-year-old woman said three men grabbed her and attempted to take off her trousers. She described the men as hispanic, with ponytails.
The woman’s account of the incident said that she was attacked on Shepherd Avenue in New York at around 3am on Monday morning.
She originally said she was grabbed in a headlock and punched by the men before she eventually managed to escape.
But NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce reviewed hours of video footage in an attempt to find the suspects, and discovered that the attack never took place.
Boyce released a statement saying: “We confronted her with our investigation, which is video clips… She recanted her statement.”
“It did not, in fact, happen,” he added.
A similar incident which really did take place in 16th Street in Windsor Terrace, may have inspired the false report, says Boyce.
A video showed a man trying to pull of the clothes of a 34-year-old woman, and dragging her to the ground.
In that incident, the woman managed to fight off the man and he ran away.
Two suspects have been identified in the Windsor Terrace attack, and police are working on the case.
This comes as YouTuber Calum McSwiggan was charged with filing a false police report after he said he was the victim of an anti-gay assault outside a West Hollywood nightclub.
McSwiggan pleaded not guilty to the charge and maintains that he was attacked.
