Client found Not Guilty of Rape despite full confession

Case study summary

Our client had mental health issues and had been accused of rape. He had sent a signed confession to the alleged victim. We gave him legal advice explaining he had not actually committed an offence, and we fought his trial on that basis. The jury all agreed.

Case study

Our client was a man in his thirties working in the creative industry. He had been in an 'on-off' relationship with his ex-partner, with whom he had children.

She had accused him of rape. He suffered from significant mental health issues and without any understanding of the law, he apologised as soon as she made the allegation. Shortly after he even wrote a signed confession due to a false sense of guilt. It was only when he instructed our specialist rape solicitors that he received proper legal advice for the first time. When he explained to us what had happened and why he wanted to 'plead guilty', it was clear that he had not committed any offence. On that basis we advised him to plead not guilty. The prosecution and even the judge at first could not understand why he was pleading not guilty when he had already written a signed confession.

It was only through our proper and careful questioning of our client that we were able to understand the true position, and advise that he had initially admitted to being guilty of a crime he did not commit.

He followed our advice and plead not guilty, despite his initial 'confession'. Our defence team went through thousands of text messages between our client and his accuser. This way we were able to show the jury a completely different picture of the relationship to the one which she had created.

Through extensive preparation, and skilled presentation of the defence case at trial, we were able to convince the jury to reject his signed 'confession' as the truth of the situation. The jury found him not guilty by a unanimous verdict.