Rape Acquittal at Woolwich Crown Court

Following a two-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court, our client was acquitted of multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.

The prosecution alleged that our client had lured the complainant, who was 13 at the time, into his car and then orally and vaginally raped her. Our client maintained that the complainant voluntarily got into his car, lied about her age and initiated consensual sexual activity.

Preparation of the case included careful analysis of location data and extensive social media communications between the complainant and her friends. Those communications and other important exculpatory material was only disclosed by the prosecution after several contested disclosure applications.

A successful section 41 application was also made on behalf of our client and the prosecution’s application to admit our client’s historic youth convictions as bad character evidence was resisted and refused by the trial Judge.

The case was prepared by David Sonn and Sophie Drake. Sarah Elliott KC of Doughty Street Chambers represented our client at trial.