PNP: UK-born woman in Philippines but wasn’t rape victim

ILOILO CITY—The Philippine National Police has belied the allegations of a British-born woman that she was held captive and repeatedly raped in the Philippines after results of a police investigation contradicted her statements.

“There is no truth to her statements concerning the sexual abuse,” said Senior Superintendent Marietto Valerio, Iloilo City police director.

A social worker who helped Mary Elizabeth Jones at a women’s center in Manila said Jones never mentioned anything about her supposed ordeal during her two-month stay at the center.

“She never told us anything about that and there were no signs that she underwent such an ordeal,” said Vivien Bayas, a staff member of The Haven National Center for Women, in a telephone interview yesterday.

The center, located in Muntinlupa City, gives shelter and assistance to sexually abused girls and women, victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and women in emergency situations.

Jones, 39, a British passport holder, last week told the Auckland-based daily newspaper New Zealand Herald that she was held captive and repeatedly raped by up to nine men daily for five and half months.

She said she came to the Philippines in October last year on an invitation on Facebook to a martial arts training program.

But Valerio said Jones apparently became angry after the married martial arts instructor that she met on Facebook refused to marry her when she went to Iloilo in February.

The martial arts instructor, Mark David Dudoit, 27, told police that he and Jones stayed at a pension house in Iloilo from February 4 to February 6 and proceeded to Passi City in Iloilo.

Valerio, quoting Dudoit, said Dudoit tried to bring Jones to the New Zealand Embassy when she refused to leave. Jones refused to go to the embassy, prompting Dudoit to bring her to the women’s center, Valerio said.

Bayas said Jones was brought to the center on February 19 by Department of Social Welfare and Development personnel. She stayed there until she left for New Zealand on April 12.

Bayas said Jones mentioned about losing P80,000, a cell phone and an iPad but not about the sexual abuse.