Dragons’ Den star in tears after being cleared of child sex offences

Doug Richard claimed he was unaware of the age of 13-year-old girl he paid for Fifty Shades-style sex

DOUG RICHARD, the former Dragons’

Den star, broke down in tears as he was cleared of child sex charges yesterday, despite admitting paying to sleep with a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

The 57-year-old American-born entrepreneur was found not guilty of five charges after claiming he had not been aware how young the teenager was.

The jury of eight women and four men cleared the father of three after his barrister told them it was not their job to judge morals.

The court heard how the millionaire was addicted to “sugar daddy” websites where he met young girls and then subjected them to Fifty Shades of Grey

style dominance role play. Last January he arranged for two teenagers to travel from their homes in Norwich to London where he spanked and had sex with the younger one. He later paid the girls a total of £360 before putting them in a taxi so they could go shopping for clothes.

A deleted online conversation retrieved from his computer revealed how Mr Richard had told the girl he wanted pictures of her in a “submissive pose”, telling her: “On your hands and knees so I can see you helpless and exposed.”

He told the Old Bailey the girls had told him they were over 16 and he had no reason to believe they were lying.

Mr Richard, of Islington, north London, was arrested three days later after the mother of one of the girls became suspicious when she noticed a cash deposit in her daughter’s PayPal account. He was charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child, one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and a charge of paying for sexual services. His barris-

ter, Sarah Elliott QC, told jurors: “Ladies and gentleman, we may all agree on one thing in this court. We may all think Doug Richard has done something morally wrong, we all know it and he knows it.”

She added: “It is not a court of morals and it is certainly not a court of the

Daily Mail.”

Had the girl been a few months younger the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) could have charged Mr Richard with statutory rape, but the law was changed in 2003, meaning it is only children under the age 13 who cannot give consent.

Mr Richard, who made his fortune in the US tech industry, appeared in the first two series of the popular BBC show. He has had a long association with the Prime Minister, writing a report into the state of small business when the Tories were in opposition and

‘We may all think Doug Richard has done something morally wrong. But it is not a court of morals’

accompanying Mr Cameron on a trade mission to southern Africa in 2011.

Mr Richard admitted meeting the girl on a website called Seeking Arrangements, which offered to connect “sugar daddies” and “sugar babies”.

He said he had met up to 100 women adding: “As mortifying as it is to say, I was looking for role play and fantasy relationships involving dominance and submission.”

The prosecution accepted that the girl had lied about her age but asked the jury to conclude that Mr Richard must have known the teenager, who was just five feet tall and weighed under six stone, was under 16.

He told jurors that he would never “knowingly” have sex with a child and added: “I feel terrible. I feel terrible for her and I feel terrible about myself. I feel terrible for my wife and children.”

He refused to comment as he left court.