Serious Rape allegation results in acquittal at trial

Case study summary

We represented this client from the date of his first interview until the end of his trial.

Our client struggled with the stress of the prosecution, having been accused of so many offences. We prepared the case for trial and attended the hearings to ensure the right outcome.

Case study

Our client was arrested in 2020 and interviewed after his younger half-sister had accused him of raping her when she was aged between four and eight years old, in Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

When he was arrested we attended the police interview our client explained that he was not guilty of this offence and we put forward a prepared statement denying the allegation against him. The statement also advanced a defence that he would follow until the end of the case; that being that she was making these allegations maliciously after a breakdown in the family.

Two years later, our client received eight charges for rape totaling over ninety-six occasions. The allegations made by the complainant were especially serious and included use of threat and violence towards both the complainant and her family.

Our client was distraught by this news and very nervous about what this would mean for him. This was made worse by losing custody of his son during the investigation, despite his denial of guilt.

In preparing this case, we spoke with our client regularly to take his instructions, however, due to his mental health and the stress of preparing for such a serious case, he struggled to provide a detailed account and on the first day of trial it became clear that there were more details to put forward to the court.

We instructed an expert barrister, Rick Holland of Lincoln House Chambers, to represent our client in this trial and worked closely with him throughout the preparation for this case to ensure we explored all options.

We served a second defence statement finalising our client's defence the day before the trial commenced. We also persuaded the judge and prosecution to agree to the inclusion of a letter that undermined the prosecution case.

The prosecution called several witnesses to try and prove their case, including the complainant and a friend she had disclosed her allegations to. The complainant's mother came to court and provided inconsistent evidence that she had witnessed our client acting strangely around his sister and that he was a threatening person, despite him only being twelve years old at the time.

The prosecution closed their case submitting that our client was a violent, threatening and aggressive predator who had taken his frustrations out on his sister.

We closed our case by reminding the jury of our client's good character, calm demeanour when giving his evidence and his clear and consistent denial of the allegations from the beginning of the case.

After a difficult and complex trial our client was found not guilty and acquitted by the jury. He was extremely happy with this decision and felt that the weight of the last three years had been lifted off of him. He was able to immediately begin to appeal the decision to remove his son from his care and could take