Czech Republic: Yet another person commits self-harm, tells police a "dark-skinned male" did it

Detectives in České Budějovice have quickly solved yet another case of an alleged hold-up in which the assailant was said to have been a "dark-skinned male". The story was invented by a 30-year-old man trying to resolve his personal problems through the fabricated incident.

The man lied to police officers, saying a stranger had first asked him for a cigarette. He said he refused and was then allegedly stabbed with a knife, after which his mobile telephone and wallet were stolen. 

The hold-up was said to have occurred on Thursday, 8 August after 18:00 beneath a particular bridge in České Budějovice. The "victim" told detectives the perpetrator was a dark-skinned man who threatened him with a knife, stabbed him in the belly, robbed him and fled in the direction of the swimming area.   

"The man suffered injuries and was taken to the hospital. His life is not in danger," police spokesperson Štěpánka Uhlířová reported on Friday, 9 August.

"Detectives in České Budějovice took an intensive interest in the case and began to discover small inconsistencies during the course of the investigation from various indicators. The alleged robbery could also have been invented," police spokesperson Jiří Matzner said on Tuesday, 12 August.

"Detectives found the wallet near the crime scene and sent a special police diver to thoroughly search the bottom of the Vltava river. In short order he managed to find both the knife and the mobile telephone," Matzner said.

Detectives then performed further interrogations and investigations and determined that the knife they found belongs to the man who claimed he was robbed. "We then held another interview with the victim, and under the weight of the evidence he confessed to detectives that he invented the story of the crime. He was trying to resolve some personal problems and caused the injury to himself at that place with the knife," Matzner said. The case will now be shelved.