Client Accused of Raping his Niece - Police Drop Case

Case study summary

Our client was accused of raping his niece. She originally reported him for sexual assault and then she told the police that he had raped her. We assessed the inconsistencies within her account and provided our advice for the interview. The police dropped the case.

Case study

Our client was accused of raping his 17-year-old niece. Throughout her teenage years, the complainant said that our client would regularly ask her to perform oral sex on him. When she was 17, he then introduced her to a swingers club where she says she watched a female perform oral sex on him.

He took her to the swingers club on a second occasion after she had broken up with her partner. Our client suggested that she could have sex there with a male who she did not know and he bought her some lingerie to wear for the evening. The complainant went with our client to the club and had consensual sex with the unknown male. Our client insisted that he remained in the room whilst they were having sex to protect his niece but he then allegedly proceeded to insert his penis into his niece's vagina without her consent.

Our client was originally investigated by the police in 2011 after his niece made a sexual assault allegation against him. She did not accuse our client of rape at the time. The police reviewed the case and decided to take no further action against him. The complainant then decided to report our client to the police again in 2022 and this time she included details about the alleged rape.

Our client denied the allegation. He admitted taking his niece to the swingers club but said that she went with him willingly. She had consensual sex with multiple males but she did not have sex with him. The complainant then became pregnant and our client and his wife had looked after her child on multiple occasions over the years. They also helped her partner to obtain a job but our client resorted to firing him because he regularly did not turn up to work.

Our client was devastated to hear that the police were investigating him for a second time. He now also had a daughter of his own who he loved dearly. The investigation meant that social services could potentially restrict his contact with her so he researched different law firms and decided to instruct our specialists to act on his behalf.

One of our expert sexual assault solicitors attended our client's police interview. We reviewed the evidence and challenged the reliability of the complainant's account. In particular, we questioned why the complainant did not accuse our client of rape when she first reported him to the police in 2011. We then provided our advice for the interview.

We contacted the police regularly to ensure that they were reviewing the case as a matter of urgency and they confirmed that they would be taking no further action against our client. He was relieved to be able to move on with his life and his young family.