Two Men’s Lives Destroyed by False Rape Claim

The following post originally appeared at Glenn Sacks.com on February 6, 2009, by Pierce Harlan:

The following news story is Shakespearean in the scope of its tragedy. A female teen’s false rape claim led to the murder of the innocent youth she falsely accused, reports a Dublin newspaper here, but the girl will not serve jail time (Herald.ie, 2/6/09).  The false accuser’s boyfriend, however, has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for his involvement in the murder.

The teenage girl, then 15, falsely told her boyfriend that an innocent Nigerian youth, Sumbo Owoiya, 18, raped her in the apartment where Mr. Owoiya lived with his family. In fact, Owoiya had no connection whatsoever with any such alleged rape.

The boyfriend contacted an unnamed third party with the intent that the third party give the purported culprit “a hiding” (a thrashing).

The news account reports that the girl drove the boyfriend to meet the third party.  The girl and the boyfriend then drove the third party, who was armed, to the innocent youth’s apartment. The girl noticed that the third party had a gun and allegedly tried to dissuade the men from going up to the innocent youth’s apartment. There is no indication in the news account that she actually admitted to them that, in fact, she had not been raped.

The girl waited in the car while the boyfriend and the gunman went to the apartment. The innocent youth apparently was looking through a peep hole when the gunman shot him through the door, and the teen died a short time later.

Both the boyfriend and the girl were convicted of manslaughter. The gunman remains at large. The boyfriend was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, but the girl was given only a three and one-half year suspended sentence.

The reason for the sentencing disparity? The girl allegedly tried to dissuade her boyfriend and the gunman from going to the apartment, and the boyfriend was “dominant in the ‘plotting and planning.’”

Two males have had their lives destroyed as a result of a girl’s false rape claim. An innocent teenage male is dead, underscoring the tragic truth that once unleahsed, a rape lie can destroy lives with a stunning, tragic completeness. Men and boys falsely accused of rape have been beaten, have been fired from their jobs, have seen their businesses destroyed, and have lost their wives and girlfriends. And, yes, some are killed and even kill themselves. In a most tragic sense, Sumbo Owoiya paid the ultimate price simply for being born male.

For his part, the false accuser’s boyfriend will spend years behind bars due to his attempt to exact vengeance for a wrong that never occurred. He, of course, had no way of knowing that the wrong had never occurred. His vigilante justice cannot be condoned, but his overreaction upon hearing that his girlfriend was raped is something that most men can at least understand.

For her part, the false accuser will not serve jail time. She was given credit during sentencing for purportedly trying to dissuade her boyfriend and the gunman from going up to the innocent youth’s apartment. It is most perplexing, and unjust, that she should be rewarded for her conduct because, in point of fact, she likely had it within her power to prevent any harm befalling the innocent youth simply by confessing to her boyfriend and the gunman that she had lied about being raped. She knew or had reason to know that the boy could be murdered, but she allowed it to occur.

And, of course, she could have avoided the entire affair by not lying about rape in the first place.