Reporting rape ‘is going to be so fun’, student told Facebook friends
A TRAINEE accountant accused of raping a student during a night out has been cleared after it emerged she sent Facebook messages to friends trying to make light of the matter.
The student, who was 18 at the time, accused George Owen, 21, of raping her after they left a bar at the Millgate Shopping centre in Bury, Greater Manchester. She had initially declined to report the matter but called police almost a year later after attending a rape crisis centre when her tutor became concerned at her behaviour.
The teenager contacted police again two weeks later, after she spotted Mr Owen by chance in a pub and recog- nised him as her alleged attacker.
The jury at Mr Owen’s trial heard that she later posted messages on Facebook about her decision to report the alleged rape, in which she stated: “OMG hahahahaha my mum knows. My mum started crying. She wants to hold my hand to go through it all with me. I was only raped chill the f--- out.”
She added: “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.”
Mr Owen, from Bury, was arrested and said the teenager had agreed to have sex with him. He was later charged with rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.
Following a week-long trial Mr Owen, who works for an accounts and auditing firm in Bolton and who was a former pupil at the £10,440-a-year Bury Grammar School, was cleared of all charges.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard the pair had met in June 2015. She later told police that Mr Owen repeatedly sexually assaulted her in a nearby alley before throwing a £5 note at her and saying: “I think you should go home now.”
Mr Owen, from Hawkshaw, Bury, told the court: “I never used physical force. She didn’t push me away, she didn’t say no. It was completely consensual. I could tell she wanted it just as much as me. She was the one who initiated it.”