Cleared in 2 hours, graduate accused of raping a student who led him into her bedroom
A GRADUATE wept with relief yesterday as he was cleared of raping a student who picked him up at a nightclub for casual sex.
A jury took less than two hours to find Lewis Tappenden, 24, not guilty of two counts of rape.
It is the latest in a string of rape cases in the past 14 months over drunken sex allegations by students where the prosecution has failed to secure a conviction.
Mr Tappenden broke down outside court when greeted by his parents.
York Crown Court heard the case was ‘a warning to every man who goes back to a woman’s room for a one-night stand’ and also focused on the alcohol- and sex-fuelled ‘world of modern students’.
Outside court, the defendant’s father said the case has been a cloud hanging over the family.
Electrician Rob Tappenden, 51, of Peterborough, said: ‘We have not won anything. The last 18 months of our life has been really tough.
‘From when he was first arrested it has been a strain on the whole family.’
He said he also had two daughters, aged 24 and 18, and understood ‘these things have to be thoroughly investigated’, but added: ‘We never doubted Lewis for a moment. We were always confident.’
He said his son was ‘in a state’ and wanted to return home to restart his life. The father refused to criticise police or the Crown Prosecution Service but said ‘if certain questions had been asked 18 months ago we would not be here now’.
Mr Tappenden had been working as a barman in October 2015 after graduating from York St John University when he was chatted up by the 18-year-old, who told friends she was going ‘out to pull’.
They were seen kissing and she allegedly told him she wanted to take him home for sex. Both were drunk and the first-year undergraduate claimed she had been ‘dragged’ out of the York nightclub, though CCTV proved this had not been the case.
Footage showed them laughing and kissing on the way to her student accommodation where she led him into her room.
It was not disputed they undressed and began ‘ sexual activity’. Mr Tappenden insisted that she had fully consented to sex throughout, but the woman told the jury she ‘started to sober up’ and told him ‘no’.
She claimed Mr Tappenden had ‘ pinned’ her down and twice forced himself on her, adding: ‘All of a sudden I realised where I was and what was happening and I just didn’t want it. I remember saying “no”. It was just awful.’
When Mr Tappenden went to the bathroom to be sick, the woman – a student at York St John University – went to wake up a flatmate. She complained it had got a ‘bit weird’ and a ‘ little bit rough’. There was no mention of rape, but she had two love bites on her face and neck, as well as a red mark above her breast.
The next day she told police she had been raped. The woman could not recall Mr Tappenden’s name and he was traced through a police appeal when his girlfriend, whom he had walked home earlier on the night of the alleged rape, recog- nised the description of his tattoo. She threw him out when she realised he had cheated on her. Mr Tappenden told the court: ‘I’m not a violent person in any scenario. I understand what consent is. I feel my life has been ruined. I thought about killing myself because of the shame of coming here.’ The jury heard that the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had drunk cider, six alco- pops, three shots and two vodka-and-Red Bull drinks. Mr Tappenden had three or four pints of lager, three triple vodka and cokes and a single vodka and coke. Barrister Cathy McCulloch, who has rape, defended recently a warned student of accusedthe legal of dangers young men faced, saying: ‘The mixture of alcohol with sex can be toxic. ‘It can come back and haunt you. It can give a criminal record to even the most lovely person who would never deliberately do anything to hurt anyone, let alone knowingly commit the evil act of rape.’
She said that if a young man and woman who were ‘equally drunk’ had sex, nothing would happen to the woman if the man woke up in the morning and said, ‘I really didn’t want that.’
But she said a woman with the same reaction could allege rape.
‘I thought about killing myself’