Officers investigating the rape and abduction of a woman from a promenade in North Yorkshire have arrested a woman on suspicion of wasting police time.
In a statement, Cleveland police said it was no longer investigating a report that a woman had been raped after being bundled into the back of a car with her toddler while they walked by the beach in Redcar in the middle of the day on 3 March.
Police arrested a 31-year-old local man on suspicion of rape on 7 March, but he was later released without charge.
In a statement, the force said: “Officers can confirm that they are no longer investigating an allegation of rape in the Redcar area that was said to have taken place on Friday 3 March. Police have today [Friday] arrested a woman aged in her early 30s on suspicion of wasting police time. She remains in police custody.”
Police launched a search and told residents to stay vigilant after a woman reported being dragged into a saloon car by two men, while she was walking near the North Yorkshire town’s boating lake with her child some time between 11.30am and 12.30pm.
At the time police released a statement saying the car had been driven down Turner Street and towards Yearby, on Longbeck Lane off the A174, where the woman was raped. They said that the woman and her child were forced out of the vehicle at least five hours later, between 5.30pm and 6.30pm, on Kirkleatham Lane, and that the pair then ran to a wooded area opposite. The child was not reported to have been physically harmed.
In a description issued by police the driver was described as a white male, aged in his late 20s or early 30s, between 5ft 7in and 5ft 10in tall, with short brown hair, of large build and with the word “love” tattooed across his knuckles.
The second suspect, the passenger, was described as a white male, aged in his early 20s, between 5ft 5in and 5ft 6in tall, of medium build, clean shaven, with brown hair and a local accent.
At the time the woman reported the incident to the police, DCI Matt Murphy-King said there had been an increase in patrols in the area of the attack, and warnings for people to be vigilant.
