A 19-year-old woman is in court after admitting to filing a false police report, claiming she was raped because a man refused to pay her the amount she demanded after a sexual encounter. The woman, identified as Claris Ling Min Rui, met the 43-year-old man on a dating application.
According to court documents, the two met for dinner and drinks before going to a hotel. It was stated that before they went to the hotel, the man had agreed to pay “S$200 for her time.” The court found that the sexual act that followed was consensual.
However, the situation took a turn after the act was over. Ms. Ling asked the man for S$1,200. He refused her demand and instead offered to give her S$500. When she rejected his offer, she became angry and threatened to file a police report against him for rape.
The incident occurred around midnight and into the early morning of March 19. After her demands were not met, she followed through with her threat and called the police, falsely claiming she had been raped while under the influence of alcohol. She also sent a text message to the man stating, “You’re f***ed.”
Two police officers responded to the hotel. Ms. Ling provided her false account of the incident to the first officer and repeated her story to a second officer who arrived later. Her false statement triggered a police investigation. However, the police reviewed the hotel’s CCTV footage, which did not align with her story.
When confronted with the video evidence, Ms. Ling confessed to her lie. At around 2:10 a.m., she admitted to the police that her claim of being raped was false and that she had only made the report because the man would not pay her the money she had demanded.
Her lawyer, Mr. Rohit Kumar Singh, stated in court that she has learned “a ‘very painful lesson she has learnt’.” She has pleaded guilty to two charges: providing false information to a public servant and using threatening words to cause alarm and distress. For providing false information, she could face a sentence of up to two years in prison, a fine, or both. For the second charge, she could be sentenced to up to six months in jail, a fine of up to S$5,000, or both.
