A woman in Ireland falsely claimed she was sexually assaulted by a group of immigrants and has received only community service for her lies.
Tanya Wall, from the town of Dungarvan, told police in February 2023 that she was walking home alone at night when multiple men dragged her down an alley and sexually assaulted her, the Waterford News & Star reported. She claimed the men were startled and fled after another woman walked by, but Wall couldn’t describe this woman to police.
After Wall made her claims, she and the police went to the scene of the alleged crime but found nothing that could be used as evidence. Police then went to Wall’s home to collect her clothing for evidence and were able to obtain messages from her phone as well.
After two weeks of investigation, including CCTV footage that showed “clear inconsistencies” in Wall’s claims, according to the News & Star, it became clear she was lying. On March 8, 2023, police arrested Wall at her home and interviewed her three times, during which time she claimed she didn’t have a good memory of the alleged attack.
Wall also told police that she told her ex-partner and mother that she had been attacked. Her sister then posted about it on Facebook — aiming her ire at immigrants in Ireland. The post angered many Irish nationals, who, following the mantra “believe women,” assumed the allegations were true and accused police of covering up the incident to protect immigrants.
Authorities in Europe have a history of downplaying violence from immigrants or outright ignoring it, including the ongoing scandal involving Pakistani “rape gangs” and how British authorities have handled it.
After Wall was arrested for lying about the sexual assault, her defense attorney, Sarah-Jane Comerford, claimed that Wall had “severe diabetes” and made the allegations due to high blood sugar and drinking too much on the night she alleged the attack happened. Comerford further said that Wall knew she told a lie that “completely snowballed” and for which she was not “brave enough” to stop, the News & Star reported.
Wall pleaded guilty to making a false report to police and wrote a letter of apology to local police, claiming she “never meant to cause so much stress, time and work.”
Judge Eugene O’Kelly criticized the apology, however, saying Wall didn’t directly apologize to the immigrant community and that her false accusation “fueled racial division” and “planted hatred into the community,” causing “alarm and upset.” O’Kelly also faulted Wall for failing to retract her false claim even when given an opportunity to do so. Despite all this, she was sentenced to just 200 hours of community service.
