Ex-Tory aide cleared of sex assault in 30 mins
A FORMER top Tory aide lashed out at the authorities last night after a jury took just 30 minutes to clear him of sexual assault.
Richard Holden, 33, blasted investigators for a ‘travesty’ of a case which he labelled an ‘utter waste of time and resources’.
The former special adviser to exdefence secretary Sir Michael Fallon accused police of ignoring evidence that exonerated him.
And he said there was vital evidence that either had not been disclosed or was passed on too late.
He spoke out after walking free from Southwark Crown Court in South London where he was cleared of putting his hand up a woman’s skirt at a party. He had insisted the attack never took place.
Mr Holden suggested police ignored their ‘greater duty’ to ‘pursue the evidence wherever it leads’.
He said: ‘This case was not about consent. What was alleged did not happen. The allegation was supposed to have taken place in a room of 15 to 20 people, none of whom corroborated the claim.
‘That this case has been pursued at all is a travesty. It has been a cruel public shaming and an utter waste of time and resources. The police and Crown Prosecution Service have created a victim of me, and victims of my close friends and family – who have suffered this ordeal at my side for a year and a half.
‘And, most importantly, it has let down the real victims of awful crimes, as the state spent tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds in pursuing a case so readily dismissed by a jury.’
After the verdict, Judge Deborah Taylor said: ‘The defendant leaves the court without a stain on his character and I hope he can have some semblance of a career.’
The case renews concern the justice system is failing to ensure vital evidence is released to defendants.
There was a storm last year over a string of collapsed rape cases.
One, against student Liam Allen, was halted when police failed to hand over records of 40,000 messages from his accuser. Every rape and serious sexual offence case is being reviewed with several sent back to police for further investigation.
Mr Holden was accused of sexually assaulting the woman, who is in her 20s, at a party shortly before Christmas 2016. The prosecution claimed he had pestered her throughout the evening with hugs and called her ‘beautiful’ before putting his hands up her skirt and inside her underwear.
But giving evidence, Mr Holden, of Lambeth, South London, said: ‘This is just not true. It did not happen. As I have said, it did not occur – it did not happen, it did not happen at all.’ Yesterday he said he ‘desperately hopes’ to return to his career.
‘It has been a cruel public shaming’