Father attacks son’s rape trial after acquittal

Prosecution ‘should have asked basic questions’ after drunken ‘pull’ ended in court ordeal for graduate

THE FATHER of a university graduate who was falsely accused of rape has attacked the investigation into his son’s case, suggesting that prosecutors failed to ask basic questions.

Lewis Tappenden, 24, a recent graduate from York St John University, was cleared yesterday of raping an 18-yearold student after an alcohol-fuelled night out in the city centre. Outside court his father, Rob Tappenden, 51, said his son could have been saved from an ordeal that left him feeling suicidal. A jury at York Crown Court took less than two hours to clear the former student, who wept at the verdict.

His father said: “We are not happy. This is not a victory. It’s not a celebration. If certain questions had been asked 18 months ago we would not be here now. I have two daughters the same age as the girl so I understand these things have to be thoroughly investigated. But we never doubted Lewis.”

Mr Tappenden, who had graduated from a course on English literature and creative writing, was on a night out in York when he was “pulled” by an 18year-old student who invited him back to her accommodation for sex. But the woman, then a first-year undergraduate at York St John, told the jury that she had changed her mind halfway through, later accusing him of rape.

Lewis Tappenden told the jury during the five-day trial: “She never said no. If she had I would not have done anything. I’m not a violent person. I understand what consent is. I feel my life has been ruined. I thought about killing myself because of the shame.”

His accuser was just two weeks into the first year of her course when she went out on a drunken night out with friends. Before she met Mr Tappenden, at the Drawing Board nightclub in the early hours of October 2, 2015, she had downed six bottles of Blue WKD, three sour shots and two vodka Red Bulls, the court heard.

A friend told the jury that the complainant had been upset because a relationship had not worked out. “So she was going out to pull someone and bring them back,” her flatmate said. “It sounds bad, but that is what you do.”

Mr Tappenden had gone out for drinks with his girlfriend, and after walking her home he continued drinking with friends at the Stone Roses bar. By the time he bumped into the com- plainant he had drunk three pints of Carlsberg and three triple vodka and cokes, and was sipping a single vodka and coke when she started kissing him and asked him back to her flat.

CCTV showed her leading him out of the club by the hand and further footage on their route to her accommodations captured them hand in hand, kissing and smiling. Once inside her bedroom, they began to have sex. She told the court that she was “OK with it at first” but she began to sober up and “something clicked”. She said she “froze” and tried to “tune out”.

When Mr Tappenden went to be sick she fled the room and woke her flatmates. She had love bites to her neck and cheek and reddening to her chest area. Security marched Mr Tappenden out of the accommodation block. She told her mother what had happened and police became involved. She also dropped out of the university course.

Mr Tappenden was described in court by a friend as “a gentle, thoughtful, reserved person, who never hurt anyone physically or emotionally”.

Judge Andrew Stubbs QC, speaking at the end of the trial, told the jury: “The defence say everything that took place on that bed was consensual, then for some reasons she has fled the room and fabricated the allegation of rape and the injuries. If that is right, your verdict should be not guilty.”