Reader Dieter Fischer posted a comment (on January 28, 2026) that prompted the research that underpins this post. He made the point that it is not only females that make false claims of sexual assault; men do too.
Dieter was commenting on our report ‘Safety in perjury for fake sex assault claims – why?
His post:
Not only females make false claims of sexual assault. What about young men, who claim abuse to gain financial compensation? The case of foster parent Tom Easling comes to mind, accused to 20 charges of abuse by a foster child. Tom was found not guilty on all charges. The young man had made it all up – and didn’t even get a slap on the wrist. Figure that!
So first up, let’s summarise the Tom Easling case;
Thomas Frank (Tom) Easling, an Adelaide foster carer and former South Australian public servant, faced 18–20 child sex offence charges involving eight former foster boys from the time he was a carer. After a trial lasting several years, a District Court jury found Easling not guilty of all charges in late November 2007. Critics and Easling himself argued that aspects of the investigation were flawed — allegations surfaced in parliament and media claiming police or child protection investigators had improperly influenced witnesses, offered inducements, or conducted interviews poorly. Note: the victim of the false claims was a male.
There are no comprehensive national statistics in Australia that categorically count the number of false sexual assault claims by gender (men v women). Available research focuses narrowly on specific subsets (e.g., rates of false reporting among all reports to police), not on how many were made by men versus women per se — and most sexual assault allegations in Australia are made by female complainants against male respondents.
Multiple research estimates indicate that 2–10% of sexual assault reports to police may be determined false after investigation; some surveys cite an average rate of around 5%. Police statistics consistently show women report far more sexual assaults than men (around 80-85% female victims in recorded police data).
According to the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data:
In 2024, there were 40,087 victims of sexual assault (victims, not assaults) recorded by Australian police — the highest number on record in over three decades.
In 2023, there were approximately 36,318–36,300 reported victims of sexual assault documented in ABS data.
Historical data show a rising trend over time (for example, about 26,892 victims were recorded in 2019).
Important distinction: these figures are victims recorded by police, not necessarily formal charges or convictions. Many reports may relate to incidents long after they occurred or involve multiple offences per accused.
For example, my two books* dealing with historical sexual abuse of minors at the Parramatta Training School for Girls (PTSG) show that the combined charges amounted to almost 50, with two dozen teenagers (at the time) claiming assaults.
*Presumption of Evil 1 & 2, dealing with the cases of Noel Greenaway and Frank Valentine respectively. See menu at right for details.