My wife falsely accused me of rape
Gideon Botchway, 36, has spoken out after estranged wife Tina, 29, was caught trying the same sick trick against A SECOND man.
Gideon, who spent 20 harrowing hours in a cell before police realised Tina was lying, told The Pleasure team: She wanted to ruin my life and take everything I loved away from me. It was an evil thing to do.
Because of her, people in the street don't see a father or a son they see a man accused of rape. For months after I was arrested I couldn't leave the house because I was scared that people would hurl abuse at me.
The shame I felt was unbearable. It sickens me she has tried to inflict the same fate on someone else.
Devious Tina had been separated from Gideon for a year when she lied to police that he had dragged her into a toilet and raped her before supposedly snarling: If you tell anyone I'll petrol-bomb your house.
She was jailed for 12 months in April last year for trying to pervert justice after a judge at Kumasi circuit court condemned her sheer wickedness.
But this July the compulsive liar was hauled back into court after falsely crying rape AGAIN.
Shocked Gideon said: It doesn't matter whether you are innocent rape accusations stick and you are branded for life.
Gideon, a joiner, married Tina in 2002, two years after they met on a night out in their home town in Ashanti region. Their daughter Mary had been born a year earlier. But by the time the couples son Kobby was born in 2004, Tina had started behaving strangely.
She would disappear for months before returning to beg forgiveness. In 2008, frustrated Gideon decided he couldn't put up with her irrational behaviour any more.
He said: I lost count of the times I sat her down to try to work out why she did the things she did.
But she would just shrug her shoulders and say she didn't know. She didn't even want to try to save our relationship. In the end I decided it would be better for everyone if we broke up.
Following the split, Gideon who was granted full access to the couples children began a relationship with another woman with whom he now has a daughter.
But Tina, consumed with jealousy over her estranged husbands happiness, devised an evil plan to make his life a living hell.
Gideon said: One night in March 2009 at about 1am the police knocked on the door and said Tina had accused me of raping her on January 10. I laughed at first I told them I hadn't been near her for months.
But they handcuffed me and took me to the police station where I was stripped naked and had swabs taken while officers looked on.
It was so humiliating that's when it really sunk in how desperate my situation was. Then they put me in a cell and left me until morning.
They had told me Tina claimed I had raped her in a downstairs toilet and threatened to kill her and firebomb the house.
I was trapped in a damp cell in a paper suit when all I wanted to do was fight the lies that she had fed them. That was the longest and worst night of my life because I really believed I could lose everything and everyone that I loved. But Tina was also taken in for questioning and when confronted with inconsistencies in her story, she admitted she had made it up to get back at Gideon in response to a letter from his lawyer.
Gideon was quickly freed but he said: I'm not the person I was before I was arrested, and I don't think I'll ever be the same again.
For months afterwards I had nightmares. I felt like the whole world was looking at me and I was so ashamed that I barely left the house for a year.
Before this happened I was considering joining the police force, but I could never do that now.
He added: At the time my children would ask me what was wrong, and I was terrified they would hear what their mum had done.
I still live in fear of them coming home and asking Daddy, did you rape Mummy? I'm hoping that I can protect them from all this until they are mature enough to cope with it properly.
Astonishingly Tinas, who was released from prison in February, accused a second man of raping her on April 18. This time she confessed she had lied before the accused man was arrested.
And heavily-pregnant Tina was spared jail when she appeared at the court for sentence after admitting trying to pervert justice again.
Judge Michael Mensah said it would be unfair on the baby to be born behind bars and gave Tina a suspended sentence and supervision order for her atrocious allegation.
Gideon, who will get his divorce later this year, said: I couldn't believe that she wasn't going to be punished, even if the victim didn't go through what I had.
He added: Tina hasn't just hurt the people she has accused, she has hurt thousands of genuine victims. It is hard enough for anyone to admit they have been sexually assaulted but anyone who lies about it makes it 10 times harder.
In a way I pity her because she will always be damaged now by the things that she has done. At least the damage that she has inflicted on my family will heal one day.
*Names have been changed.
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