CHED GIRL: MY LIFE IS RUINED Online attacks force her to hide for ever
Family pleaded with me to win his freedom
It’s almost exactly four years ago since Ched’s family first contacted me to say they were at their wits’ end.
When I met with his mother Helen and sisters Kylie and Nicola, they were pleading with me to review his case.
Ched had already lost his appeal opportunity – the only way now would be to present fresh evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. This was a tall order. Helen felt strongly the investigation had been “biased and unsatisfactory”, and complained to North Wales Police and appealed via the IPCC.
They readily supplied the details of his case – and I was horrified. I felt he had not received a fair trial, and key evidence had been totally ignored.
It was a tough case to deal with. Unlike most, there was no scene of crime, no DNA or forensic evidence.
At the trial Clayton McDonald was acquitted whilst Ched was convicted. This seemed another anomaly that took me time to fully understand.
I spent six months working through legal files and a mass of paperwork. I sifted through witness statements, trial documents and CCTV footage.
I visited Ched at HMP Wymott, near Leyland, where he was just prisoner No A4677CN – a forlorn, lonesome and lean figure, desperate for someone to hear his story.
I spent hours grilling Ched face to face on crucial questions. I knew from his reactions, and his admission that he knew his actions had been stupid and juvenile.
He felt badly about the way he had treated the girl, by the way he had just left her in bed and left via a fire exit. He felt ashamed now.
He was also disgusted with himself for cheating on his girlfriend – but kept repeating it was consensual sex.
I later met Ched’s girlfriend Natasha Massey at her father’s business premises in Macclesfield.
Ched welcomed my involvement and praised my close examination of his case. Around July 2014, I submitted a 170-page report on what, in my opinion, should have been used in court, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the case.
Russ Whitfield, a retired Det Supt with Sussex Police, was engaged to follow up leads and re-visit witnesses.
My concern is that Ched was lucky. He had the financial clout of his future father-in-law.
For Joe Average, without funds for top lawyers and ex-CID investigators, what hope do they have of justice? THE girl at the centre of the Ched Evans case is facing fresh attacks from vile online trolls after the footballer was cleared this week of raping her.
One Twitter user suggested the woman, who was 19 at the time, should kill herself – while others have named her despite strict laws protecting her identity.
A source close to her said: “This case has destroyed her life. She will never recover from it.
“She is being constantly harassed on social media and can’t see an end to it. It is making it impossible for her to put what has happened behind her.”
Giving his own backing to the girl, Chesterfield striker Evans, 27, urged: “Everyone now has the right to move on. I wish no ill will to anybody.”
The former waitress has repeatedly had to move home and change her name since first being outed in 2012.
At one stage she even fled abroad for fear of retribution after her photograph and details were plastered online.
The hate campaign meant she lost spending time with her mother, who has since died.
Wales international Evans was cleared at Cardiff crown court on Friday of raping the woman in a hotel room near Rhyl, North Wales, after a night out in 2011.
He had served 20 months of a five-year jail sentence after being found guilty of the charge in 2012 when a jury agreed with his accuser’s account that she was too drunk to give consent.
But the conviction was quashed in April and a retrial ordered after appeal judges controversially allowed evidence from two men giving details of the woman’s sexual history, which it was argued backed up Evans’ insistence that the sex was consensual. Evans’ accuser has no memory of the incident. Rachel Krys, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: “The issues that come up in these cases are very personal.
“It’s a very real concern that what has happened to this woman, with people naming her online, will stop victims of sexual offences from coming forward.
“We need to come away from this idea that people who experience ordeals like this are somehow to blame or should be shamed.”
In a statement on his website, the footballer added: “I want to stress I absolutely disassociate myself from anyone who names on any forum the woman in this case, or makes any offensive comments about her.”
In November 2012, nine people in the UK were convicted of illegally naming the woman on social media. They were each fined £624.
Supt Jo Williams, of North Wales Police, said: “We’re aware the woman has been named again. People need to be aware they could be prosecuted.”
I felt he had not had a fair trial… that key evidence was ignored DON HALE JOURNALIST WHO PROBED CHED’S CASE She’ll never recover from this case. She is constantly harassed SOURCE CLOSE TO EVAN’S ACCUSER YESTERDAY