HOW DID IT EVER GET TO COURT?
Police and prosecutors on rack as ex Deputy Speaker is cleared of nine sex charges
MP Nigel Evans should never have faced trial over claims he was a rapist and a sex pest, colleagues – and even one of his alleged victims – said last night. The former Commons Deputy Speaker spoke of his ‘11 months of hell’ after a jury took less than six hours to acquit him of sex offences against seven men.
The trial heard that only two of the alleged victims had complained to police. The other five had their names passed to officers as people who could vouch for Mr Evans’s alleged unwanted advances.
But one of the men said last night he had never wanted Mr Evans to be prosecuted, branding police ‘overzealous’. Another admitted to embellishing his account ‘for dramatic effect’, while a third – allegedly traumatised by a sexual assault – was revealed to have remained a close friend of the Ribble Valley MP, even referring to him as an ‘ allround good egg’.
Last night one senior Tory called for the Attorney General to investigate the prosecution, saying it had led to a risk of a serious injustice being done to an innocent man.
Mr Evans’s solicitor, Daniel Berk, said police had gone out of their way to find people with complaints against his client in a way they would not have done had he not been so high-profile.
Similar questions were asked only nine weeks ago when Coronation Street star William Roache, 81, was acquitted of sex offences in the same courtroom, prompting accusations of a celebrity witch-hunt.
Mr Evans mentioned Mr Roache as he spoke of his relief on the steps of Preston Crown Court after being cleared of rape, five sexual assaults, one attempted sexual assault and two indecent assaults.
The MP, who stepped down as Deputy Speaker to fight the case at a personal cost of £200,000, wept as the jury found him not guilty, saying: ‘Thank you’.
Outside court Mr Evans said he had gone through ‘11 months of hell’ and it was no time for celebration. He added: ‘Bill Roache just a few
‘There are no winners’
weeks ago from this very spot said there are no winners in these cases and that’s absolutely right. All I can say is that after the last 11 months that I’ve gone through, nothing will ever be the same again.’
His acquittal is another major blow to the Crown Prosecution Service, following those of Mr Roache and DJ Dave Lee Travis.
Mr Evans had spoken publicly of his ‘incredulity’ a day after the initial accusations were put to him by detectives last May, branding them ‘completely false’. In the weeks that followed, a series of further allegations surfaced and he was arrested again, giving the impression that a number of people had reported his behaviour to police. But it emerged during his trial that only two of the seven alleged victims had contacted police directly.
Two were spoken to after their names were passed to detectives, and were produced in court as victims by the prosecution. Both told police they did not regard what had happened as a crime and did not want Mr Evans to be prosecuted.
The prosecution had suggested that after becoming open about his homosexuality around Westminster in the early 2000s – although he did not come out publicly until 2010 – Mr Evans drunkenly took sexual liberties with politically ambitious young men.
But he insisted that he was victim of a plot among Westminster workers co- ordinated by the former friend who had reported an unwanted advance at his constituency home in 2009 to Tory whips, but never reported it to police.
The man eventually spoke to police last May after telling Tory MP Dr Sarah Wollaston what he claimed had happened.
She informed Speaker John Bercow who said it was a police matter after being told another young man had accused Mr Evans of rape.
In court, Mr Evans insisted the alleged rape had been consensual sex, and accused other complainants of telling ‘absurd’ stories as part of a co- ordinated effort to wreck his political career.
As police and prosecutors faced the latest storm over their handling of a high-profile sex offences case, former shadow Home Secretary David Davis said the case highlighted ‘serious concerns’.
‘It is clear from the way that this case proceeded that there is a risk of a serious injustice being done to an innocent man, and I would call on the Attorney General to urgently review this issue.’
Mr Evans quit his £102,000-a-year job as Deputy Speaker after being charged last September and has since sat as an independent backbencher. The court heard that the only costs he can potentially claim back are his travel expenses.
Last night sources at his Ribble Valley constituency association said they would meet in the next few weeks to consider whether to reselect him as their candidate for the 2015 General Election.
Detective Superintendent Ian Critchley of Lancashire Police defended the use of testimony from men who did not regard what they said Mr Evans had done as a crime. ‘All of the evidence was subjected to careful scrutiny before a decision was taken to charge [Mr Evans]’ he said.
The CPS said it respected the verdict, adding: ‘It was right that all of the evidence was put before a jury.’
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