Harrow Crown Court - Client Acquitted of Rape & Other Serious Offences

Our client was charged with two counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, kidnap, intentional strangulation, and common assault on the same complainant. The police arrested our client towards the end of August 2019, and our client was subsequently charged.

The client was granted bail after considerable efforts on the part of his defence team, and several bail variations had to be secured. We had to obtain detailed instructions regarding events that occurred over the space of three days, and there was a considerable amount of CCTV footage which had to be viewed and analysed. The complainant spoke Patios and a translation of her account had to be prepared. The defence in this case was that all the sexual activity that our client engaged in with the complainant was consensual, and that there was a motive for making false allegations on behalf of the complainant. Specifically, the complainant and her daughter had stolen money from our clients’ online bank account over the three days that they were together, and that the complainant had subsequently attacked our client with a bottle when he was leaving her residence, which caused him injuries.

Disclosure in relation to this became an issue, and there was a lot of back and forth between the Defence and the Prosecution. Our client entered a not guilty plea at the Plea and Trial Preparation Hearing, and a date was fixed for trial at Harrow Crown Court.

Barry Linnane was the solicitor overseeing the case, and he instructed Kaja Reiff-Musgrove, of Drystone Chambers, as counsel. We are pleased to report that our client was unanimously acquitted.