Client Accused of Historic Sexual Assault - Case Closed

Case study summary

Our client was a 57-year-old gymnastics coach who was accused of sexually assaulting the complainant when they were teenagers. He denied the allegation. One of our expert sexual assault lawyers represented him at his police interview and persuaded the police to drop the case.

Case study

Our client was a 57-year old gymnastics coach who, prior to becoming a coach, had been a professional gymnast. In August 2022, he was accused of sexually assaulting the complainant when they were both teenagers.

The complainant said that when she was 14-years-old, she attended the same gymnastics club as our client who was a few years older than her. One day, she was cleaning the gym when our client and his friend invited her out with them for lunch. Our client's friend drove his van whilst the complainant sat on our client's knee in the passenger seat. The complainant said that our client has then allegedly touched her breast and inserted his finger into her vagina. She did not tell anybody about the alleged assault until August 2022 when she googled our client, found his gymnastics club online, and sent him a message on WhatsApp. She then informed her sister and the police.

Our client described being devastated by this false allegation and feared the potential impact it could have on his career. Gymnastics was his life and he could not understand why someone was trying to ruin this. He had never been in trouble with the police before and contacted our specialist lawyers to represent him.

One of our expert sexual assault lawyers attended the police interview and challenged the strength of the evidence before providing our client with advice. We were of the view that there was no evidence to support the complainant's allegation. In particular, our client's friend confirmed that he did not witness any such assault. We also questioned the complainant's reasons for accusing our client almost 40 years later. Following the interview, we wrote a letter to the police which forced them to review the case.

We were successful in persuading the police to drop the case. Our client was relieved to be able to continue instilling his passion for gymnastics into the younger generation.