A Newry woman, who falsely claimed that a man had been attacked in her home with a Stanley knife over a £100 drug debt, has been fined.
Ann Marie Pope, 45, of Mountain View Drive, appeared before the City’s Magistrates’ Court on Friday, charged with wasting police time by making a false statement.
A prosecution solicitor told the court that on Saturday, November 11, 2023, at approximately 3.45pm, police attended the report of an alleged assault.
It was reported that an alleged injured party had been assaulted in the bedroom of the property at around 3.15pm by another man.
It was reported that this man was banging at the back door demanding money that he said was owed to him.
The reporting person alleged that the man then made his way upstairs to the bedroom and assaulted the alleged injured party with a Stanley knife on the right arm.
Pope was in the house at the time of the alleged assault.
She told police that she heard banging at the back door and looked out to see the man at the door. She opened it and let him into the property.
Pope then told police that this man made his way upstairs to the bedroom and that she believed he “demanded” £100 pound due to an alleged drug debt.
Pope said the man then left the house and went to Dundalk with his brother following the assault. The man was then arrested on suspicion of a number of offences.
However, at a later time, on November 25, 2023 Pope made a statement to police, saying that the previously reported incident was false.
She said that the alleged attacker had not been in her house at the time, and that the injured party had inflicted an injury – that police had observed – to his arms himself.
Sentencing in her absence, District Judge Eamon King, said: “Police have enough to do without being sent on wild goose chases by people making false allegations.”
Pope was handed a fine of £250 and a £15 offenders’ levy.
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