Metro

Crying wolf really hurts true victims of assault

Who gets hurt when a Hofstra student cries “Gang rape!” — when she really issued an engraved invitation to an old-fashioned gang bang?

It’s not who you think.

The five young men falsely accused of assaulting Danmell Ndonye, a woman of 18, certainly got maimed by this venal vixen. Four of these innocent guys were locked in jail for days. All suffered public scorn and humiliation you wouldn’t wish on a terrorist.

But the web of innocents punished the most by Ms. Ndonye’s lies extends far beyond the blameless boys. This case will wind up inflicting enduring harm on the very people society wants to protect: genuine victims of sexual violence.

Who will believe a rape “victim” now?

Ndonye is but the latest in a string of high-profile rape-criers who found brief fame, sympathy and the prospect of riches by claiming the worst. They all turned out to be nothing better than lying whores.

Egged on by a sickening district attorney, Crystal Gail Mangum, a stripper and hooker, nearly destroyed the lives of three innocent Duke University lacrosse players by making up a sex fantasy so laughably absurd, it’s amazing her ruse went on as long as it did.

Tawana Brawley stripped a fine upstate prosecutor of his career by claiming, to the applause of Al Sharpton, that she was raped. Turned out she was trying to avoid a beating from her stepfather.

She nearly got away with it.

Women every day get attacked, most frequently by people they know. There rarely are witnesses and, for the most part, we take their words as gospel.

For this reason it is imperative that accusations serious enough to put a man away for life are not leveled by cuties trying to relieve guilty consciences, or work out their personal therapy on the backs of bystanders.

I am glad the DA acted quickly to clear the names of the lads who got sucked into Ndonye’s wickedness. I’m thrilled that she’s now facing charges.

And I’m overjoyed that one of the young men had the foresight to videotape the sex act on his cellphone, revealing Ndonye’s healthy appetite for energetic escapades.

I suppose now every man with a grain of sanity should carry a video camera. You never know whom you’ll meet.

Justice will prevail this time. But who will believe the next alleged victim isn’t merely some nut crying wolf?

andrea.peyser@nypost.com