Summary
Our client was charged with a five-count indictment relating to sexual assault on his ex-partner and perverting the course of justice, where the charge for perverting the course of justice was withdrawn pre-trial. Following a jury trial, our client was acquitted of one count, with a hung jury in relation to the remaining counts. After a full review of the case, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to pursue a retrial, and not guilty verdicts were recorded for all counts.
Details of the Incident
Our client and the complainant were in a long-term relationship and had been living together for several years. After the relationship started to break down, the two continued living together. It was during this time that the offences were alleged to have taken place.
The complainant claimed that our client had engaged in sexual activity with her without her consent while she was asleep. Our client was represented by the Duty Solicitor at the Police Station, where he denied all the accusations.
Although he accepted that sexual activity had occurred, he maintained the complainant had been conscious and consented the entire time. He was later charged with two counts of rape, one count of assault by penetration and one count of sexual assault.
Our Defence
Following the Police proceedings, our client decided to instruct Lawtons due to our specialism and success in defending sexual offence accusations. Managing Partner Nick Titchener took on our client’s case on a privately funded basis, where he provided robust legal advice as well as support throughout the duration of the proceedings.
In a video recording provided by the complainant, it was suggested that our client had admitted to and apologised for the offences. Our client maintained that any apologies he made were in the context of him wanting to move on in the relationship, not because he had committed any offences and was admitting to what he’d done. He asserted that he had reasonable belief that she was consenting to any sexual activity.
Our client also claimed that he and the complainant had continued to engage in consensual sexual contact after the date of the allegations. He stated that there was video and photographic evidence of this on his phone, which he submitted to the Prosecution.
Key Evidence and Arguments
The Prosecution instructed an expert to analyse our client’s photo evidence. The expert found that for many of the photos, the creation date had apparently been altered. The Prosecution then added a count of perverting the course of justice to the indictment, suggesting that our client had deliberately altered the creation date to give the impression that the relationship with the complainant had continued.
Our client completely denied this suggestion. Perverting the course of justice is considered a serious offence under UK law that could lead to a lengthy prison sentence. Nick instructed another expert to investigate further and to assert whether the creation date could have been altered in any other way.
Our expert was able to show that the altered creation dates were the result of the images being downloaded from the Cloud, rather than the result of our client actively changing them. The expert was also able to show that there was at least one video showing sexual contact between our client and the complainant contemporaneously when some of the allegations were said to have occurred. This also undermined the credibility of the complainant who had claimed that there had been no sexual activity between the two of them for months before the allegations took place, this was clearly the case.
Following this report, the Prosecution withdrew the count for perverting the course of justice. The complainant then submitted a further statement, accepting that sexual contact had occurred after the date of the alleged offences but sought to minimize its relevance.
Court
Our client’s case was heard at Northampton Crown Court, where our client was represented by Barrister Pamela Brain of Church Court Chambers. Thanks to the strength of the evidence and Pamela’s robust advocacy in court, the jury found our client not guilty on one of the counts, with a hung jury for the remaining 3 counts.
A hung jury means that the jury could not come to a conclusive decision, where the Prosecution will need to decide whether to retry the matter on another occasion. After reviewing the case, the Prosecution decided not to continue proceedings and our client was acquitted of all the remaining charges.
Our client was extremely relieved with this outcome. Considering that he was at significant risk of a very lengthy prison sentence, this was a fantastic outcome and a testament to the strength of Lawtons’ legal expertise.
This case highlights the importance of ensuring that you instruct expert, specialist representation if you are accused of a criminal offence to ensure a favourable outcome.
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