PNP belies New Zealand woman’s sex slavery claims

MANILA, Philippines – Police consider it a case of “fatal attraction.”

A probe by the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has belied the claims of a 39-year-old New Zealander that a Filipino martial arts instructor abducted and kept her as a sex slave for more than five months when she visited the country.

The CIDG said the allegations of the British-born woman that were published in the New Zealand Herald News on September 20 were just “figments of her imagination,” and that documentary evidence and medical tests had debunked her claims.

Mary Elizabeth Jones had told the New Zealand newspaper she was robbed, kidnapped, beaten badly and forced into prostitution for five-and-a-half months by 27-year-old Mark David Dudoit of Banate, Iloilo, who denied the allegations.

But in a statement, CIDG Director Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr. said investigators found several holes in the woman’s story.

For one, contrary to her claim that she arrived in the country in October last year and was kept as sex slave for more than five months, records from the Bureau of Immigration showed that she stayed in the country for only 68 days, from February 3 to April 12.

A dental report further indicated that she has a complete set of teeth, belying another claim of hers that she had lost several teeth when she was beaten badly while in captivity, investigators said.

Her allegation that she was impregnated was similarly disproved by the medical test, which also showed no signs of abortion, the CIDG said.

“Based on the foregoing gathered facts, it is evident that Ms. Jones’ alleged ordeal as published in the New Zealand newspaper were figments of her imagination,” the CIDG said.

Investigation showed that Jones and Dudoit became friends in October last year through Facebook. Jones posed as a young and attractive girl under the fake name Sophie Bell from Arizona, Texas, but later Dudoit discovered her true identity and age after a brief confrontation via online chat, the CIDG said.

Jones and Dudoit decided to meet in person after developing an online affair. Jones arrived in Iloilo on Feb. 3, 2011 and the two stayed on several occasions at a pension house in Iloilo City and later rented an apartment in Passi City.

But after Jones showed signs of “unstable behavior,” Dudoit told investigators he left her and went back to Iloilo City.

On February 18, Jones filed a complaint with the CIDG’s Women and Children Protection Division against Dudoit  and was placed at the Heaven for Women temporary shelter for violence victims in Filinvest, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

But results of the medical exam revealed no external signs of recent application of any form of trauma, the CIDG said.

CIDG-WCPD chief Superintendent Emma Libunao said the Jones case could be considered “a case of fatal attraction.”

“She was dumped by Dudoit when he found out that she was a nut case,” Libunao said in the statement.