NEW YORK - A construction worker imprisoned for nearly three years was wrongfully convicted of a knifepoint gang rape the accuser now says she made up, prosecutors said Monday.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers didn't immediately rule after prosecutors said they would consent to overturning William McCaffrey's conviction, which new DNA tests also have called into question. Carruthers , who called the supposed attack "disgusting" when he sentenced McCaffrey in 2006 , set a Dec. 10 court date.

McCaffrey was convicted of rape, kidnapping and other charges after Biurny Peguero said he and two accomplices tricked her into getting into their car after a night out.

Found bruised and hysterical with her pants unbuttoned and belt broken, the 22-year-old told authorities the men drove off with her, beat and raped her, with McCaffrey serving as the ringleader and threatening her with a knife.

"This tragedy changed my life forever," she said at McCaffrey's 2006 sentencing. She had also testified at his trial.

McCaffrey was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Defense lawyer Glenn A. Garber later persuaded prosecutors to use new technology to retest DNA samples from an apparent bite mark on Peguero's arm. The initial tests had been inconclusive.

The new test showed the DNA wasn't McCaffrey's , in fact, the samples came from at least two women, apparently friends of Peguero's who fought with her, prosecutors said.

Separately, Peguero approached authorities this spring to recant the rape story. Burdened by a lie that "became too big for her to back out of," she confessed earlier this year to a priest, assistant Manhattan district attorney Evan Krutoy said in a court filing Monday. The priest steered her to a lawyer, who contacted prosecutors.

She told them she claimed she was raped because her friends weren't sympathetic after her encounter with men who had frightened , but not attacked , her.

"She wanted the group to feel badly," Krutoy wrote.

Initially reluctant to admit the fabrication for fear of the consequences, "she thought she could live with the lie, but every night she would cry, and she was not at peace with herself," he wrote.

Prosecutors declined to comment on whether they would pursue a perjury charge against her. Now Biurny Peguero Gonzalez, she lives in Union City, N.J.

Her lawyer, Paul Callan, notes that the married mother of two , the youngest a boy born only Saturday , came forward despite knowing she could end up in prison.

"I think she deserves some credit for doing that," he said.

McCaffrey, 32, was released on bail in August. He has returned to work doing carpentry, Garber said.

"I don't think he's bitter , I think he's very upset about the way the system handled his case," Garber said.