Jury throws out ‘wrong man’ rape case
AN INNOCENT university student was accused of rape and subjected to a yearlong court ordeal after a woman he had sex with claimed she thought she had been sleeping with a different man.
It took a jury just 27 minutes to clear Sam Obeghe, 24, of raping the 21-yearold shop assistant at his apartment in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on December 5, 2014.
Mr Obeghe stopped intercourse with the woman when she cried the name of his friend Zack Garrigan.
As he did so, the woman – who had earlier been drunkenly petting with Mr Garrigan, 22, – ran her fingers through Mr Obeghe’s hair and realised she was with the wrong man. She stormed out in hysterics, police were alerted and Mr Obeghe, an economics student at the University of Salford, was arrested. He endured a 17-month wait before his trial. On Wednesday, Mr Obeghe, now 26, fought back tears as the jury at Bolton Crown Court unanimously acquitted him of rape.
During the trial, the woman said the bedroom was “pitch black” and she couldn’t see anything, despite Nigerian-born Mr Obeghe being of different ethnicity to Mr Garrigan who is white.
Mr Obeghe’s lawyer, Ian Robinson, said: “This has been a most traumatic ordeal for him. His health has suffered, his university studies have been affected and given the shameful nature of the allegation, he has been unable to confide in his close friends and family.”