Man text woman to ‘apologise’ for rape – but never convicted

“I COULD have turned up at his house in nothing but hooker heels and a trench coat and it still wouldn’t matter”, says Ella*, who was told by a detective investigating her attack that she “should have been more careful”.

She was raped by a man she had met through a dating app in November 2017.

Ella’s rapist more or less admitted to the crime over text, while his accounts of the incident did not add up and evidence suggested he was a compulsive liar.

Yet despite a lengthy and traumatic investigation, he was never charged.

Ella spoke to our sister paper the Yorkshire Evening Post back in November in a series of features investigating how safe women felt in Leeds.

Agreeing to speak again, she explained how her rapist lied and manipulated her into coming to his home, before dragging her into his bedroom and sexually attacking her.

“I have a rule where I always meet someone in a public place,” she said.

“That night, he said he couldn’t get into Leeds as his car had broken down, so said, ‘would you mind coming over?’

“I was hesitant, but in the end I showed his picture and gave his details to my friend just to be safe.

“When I got there I realised there were lots of things he had lied about. In fact, the only thing that was true was his name.” The two sat down and watched TV as he became increasingly forward.

“Suddenly he was dragging me by my hair into the bedroom, trying to take my clothes off ”, she recounts.

“I just froze thinking, ‘I can either lie back and not react or run’, but I didn’t know how I would get out.

“He started having sex with me. Randomly, he stopped and said, ‘I should put a condom on’. I just got off the bed and ran out. I called my friend and drove home.”

Ella’s rapist texted her shortly after she left, saying he was “sorry” and would “make it up” to her.

She replied writing, “I didn’t want that to happen – I told you to stop”, and he apologised again.

Ella alerted police straight away, and what followed was a year-long investigation involving traumatic interviews, and swabs.

“You have to be very specific in the interviews,” she added. “It all feels so clinical. You don’t know how to act and worry one tiny thing you say and the police will think you’re lying.

“The detective came over to my apartment and said they had arrested him and taken a statement before releasing him on bail.

“The detective said, ‘if you’re going to be meeting people online, you need to be more careful – you shouldn’t be going to a man’s house. I was shocked. I told him, ‘I could have turned up in nothing but hooker heels and a trench coat and it still wouldn’t matter. This is in no way my fault’.