Cleared in just two hours, the student accused of rape a year later
A TRAINEE accountant has been cleared of raping a college student during a night out.
George Owen, 21, was subjected to an 18-month court ordeal after the 19-year old claimed he forced himself on her after they left a bar.
The student initially declined to report the matter to police, but after spotting Owen in a pub almost a year later she contacted officers.
When he was arrested he said the sex was consensual but was later charged with rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.
The trial was told Owen’s alleged victim had sent a Facebook message telling friends: ‘I was only raped chill the f*** out.’
She went on: ‘I’m going to ring them [police] tomorrow and tell them I’ll do it. My mum wants to come so I’m going to ask whether I can do it while she’s on holiday. It’s going to be so fun.’
Under cross-examination, the teenager – who cannot be named for legal reasons – said the ‘fun’ comment had been ‘sarcastic’ and insisted she had not consented to sex.
But after a week-long trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, a jury took two-and-a-quarter hours to reach a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
The encounter occurred in June 2015 when the pair met while out drinking in Bury, Lancashire. Later in the evening a friend of Owen’s drunkenly asked her for sex.
Owen, who was 18 at the time, apologised for his friend’s behaviour and offered to get the girl a taxi home. It was alleged he pounced on her when they went outside. The girl claimed she was repeatedly sexually assaulted in an alley before Owen threw a £5 note at her and said: ‘I think you should go home now.’
She told a friend but did not report the encounter to police. The court heard one of her college tutors was conScottish cerned at the way she was behaving and she attended a rape crisis centre.
She was eventually interviewed about the allegations on April 5 last year and she called police again when she spotted Owen two weeks later in a pub. He told officers he was ‘shocked’ by the accusations. Owen, a former pupil of £10,440-a-year Bury Grammar School, said the pair spent some time chatting. He added: ‘I then said to her, “Would you like to go outside and have sex?” She said yes so I said, “Meet me over there over the road in two to three mins”.’
Owen said she stood up and left straight away, which he took as a sign she wanted sex with him.
He left a few minutes later and they had sex in a car park before he gave her money for a taxi home.
Owen told police that neither of them had been ‘blind drunk’, merely ‘tipsy’. He added: ‘I didn’t force myself upon her.’
The girl said she had only two drinks all night and denied flirting with Owen and his friend.
‘I didn’t force myself on her’