Client Accused of Rape by Ex-Wife - No Further Action

Case study summary

Our client's wife ended their relationship and he eventually moved on with a new partner. His ex-wife then accused him of rape. We represented our client at the police station and submitted pre-charge representations afterwards which persuaded the police to drop the case.

Case study

Our client was a school teacher. He and his wife were childhood sweethearts who went on to get married and had two sons together. In October 2021, our client's wife informed him that she was in love with someone else. They separated in December 2021 and she moved out of the family home shortly after this. Originally, the break down of the relationship was amicable. Our client then met a new partner and, a few months later, our client's wife accused him of rape and controlling and coercive behaviour.

Our client denied the allegations. He explained that his wife suffered with mental health problems and he also thought that his relationship with his new partner may have been a catalyst for the false allegations. Our client knew that the offences he was being accused of were serious, with potentially life-changing consequences, and so, he asked us to represent him as soon as the police contacted him.

We represented our client at his police interview. We obtained pre-interview disclosure and then asked further questions to obtain as much information as we could. We then sat down with our client to obtain his full instructions. We discussed the background to the relationship with his wife, her struggles with mental health and the end of the relationship. During this, we identified helpful evidence which we thought would help our client's case, including love letters which had been written to our client from his wife after he had allegedly raped her.

Unfortunately, during the course of the investigation, our client's employer decided to terminate his employment. His house where he and his two young sons lived had also been provided by his employer so they became under the threat of homelessness as well. Our goal to shut the investigation down became even more urgent.

We began to create a package for the police and Crown Prosecution Service which highlighted the weaknesses in the investigation, included evidence supporting our client's case and statements from our client's friends and family who spoke of his exemplary character.

Our representations were successful and the police took no further action against our client. He was extremely relieved and looked forward to returning back to his career as a teacher.