How a one-night stand with the wife of a friend has destroyed my life... after she cried rape 30 YEARS later
given a duty solicitor and arrested, and the interview was taped under caution. I made a statement and I admitted I had sex with her and told them she was really keen on me and she was pushing it. ‘
Frank wasn’t charged until March 17, 2016. He said: ‘When I was charged I said, “Not guilty, I have never in my life been violent to any woman. Sussex Police are not fit for purpose.” They wouldn’t type the last bit on the form at first, but I insisted and they finally did.’
He added: ‘I was so shocked, the officer offered to drive me home. He said I shouldn’t be driving.’
As the trial date approached, Frank hired a barrister, Elizabeth Nartey, but he and Jacque, with the help of their son and daughters, performed all the paperwork and legal correspondence that would normally fall to a solicitor.
As evidence began to be passed over by the prosecution under the discovery process, a troubling picture of Jane’s mental state became apparent. In her statement, she claimed that Jacque told her that Frank had once had sex with an ‘aborigine woman’ on holiday in South Africa behind a bush. In February 2013, she had telephoned an investigating officer after an interview telling him she’d recalled once being in a playhouse in the garden where ‘people were having sex with her’.
Most damning of all in the police log were details of a letter from Jane’s GP, and a note from a Detective Constable Parkinson who had written: ‘The letter states in capitals, “THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REFERENCE [in medical records] TO ANY EVENT WHICH COULD BE RELATED TO THIS REPORT OF ASSULT [sic].”’
The detective’s log continued: ‘The letter also stated her M/H [mental health] issues is of a relatively recent onset. She had no M/H illness prior to 2012 when she initially reported vague symptoms such as difficulty distinguishing reality. However within a month she deteriorated rapidly, needing prolonged in-patient psychiatric treatment for a delusional disorder.’
It seems unsurprising then that, when the case came to Hove Crown Court in January, the judge gave the prosecution a chance to withdraw the case, asking if the Crown had properly reviewed this case in light of the evidence and Mr Fulker’s good character.
The prosecutor said it was the Crown’s intention to proceed on the basis that they could not say that the ‘complainant was not capable of being believed’.
Some of the exchanges in court would have bordered on the farcical if the stakes had not been so high. Mr Fulker said: ‘When I was cross-examined, it was put to me over and again that I must have had a black Range Rover as the complainant said in her statement. But I had a silver Rover 2.6 back then.’
The astonished jurors heard that during Mr Fulker’s police interview, DC Parkinson stated twice that the complainant had told police she had given Mr Fulker the condom – which matched his own account. Under cross-examination, DC Parkinson said the suggestion that the complainant supplied the condom had been a ‘mistake’ on his part. In her taped statement, the woman claimed Mr Fulker supplied the condom.
After a week-long trial, the jury of six men and six women returned a unanimous Not Guilty verdict after just two hours’ deliberation.
Today Mr Fulker is considering legal action. He makes no secret of his feelings about DC Parkinson, saying: ‘I’d like to see him busted down to a traffic warden.’
He decries the College of Policing guidelines which insist that people reporting sexual assault must be believed to encourage more victims to come forward. The guidelines are being reviewed.
‘I’ve no objection at all to police taking victims seriously, but the allegations have to be tested and investigated properly, not simply taken at face value,’ he said.
For the woman and her husband who brought the allegations, he has only contempt. ‘I’d like them to have a taste of the four-and-a-half years of pain we’ve been through, then justice would be done.’
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: ‘The role of the CPS is to assess if there is a realistic prospect of conviction and if it is in the public interest to prosecute. In this case, the judge agreed that the evidence was sufficient for the case to be left to the jury and we respect their decision.’
In a statement, the complainant, who is now in her 60s, and her husband said they were ‘disappointed’ with the outcome. They refuted Mr Fulker’s claim that the reporting of the allegation was at her husband’s prompting due to his disbelief that consent was given.
The statement said: ‘Rape is an incredibly serious matter… and we are thankful that the case was pursued.’
A Sussex Police spokesman said: ‘Prosecution witnesses who gave evidence were open to challenge by the defence in cross-examination, and we have not been told of any criticism of the prosecution or police by the trial judge.’
He said a complaint by Mr Fulker about the detective in his case had ruled there was no misconduct.
I’d like to see that detective busted down to traffic warden