Rugby league player delighted as child sex charges dropped
A RUGBY league international has spoken of his delight after child sex offences against him were dropped by the prosecution.
It was the second time Adam Walker from Shipley had faced charges relating to the allegations involving a 14-year-old girl which led to his initial arrest in 2015.
The first set of proceedings accusing him of attempting to engage in sexual activity were dismissed last year after his defence argued the original charges were wrong in law when the prosecution applied to amend them, but it was said the case could be reinstated with new charges.
Instead, he faced one charge of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and two charges of allegedly meeting a child following sexual grooming.
But yesterday at Leeds Crown Court, Judge James Spencer QC heard no evidence was being offered against the 25-year-old.
Walker now plays for St Helens but at the time the allegations first surfaced and he was first arrested he was at Hull Kingston Rovers.
After the hearing he said: “I am delighted by the decision that the Crown Prosecution Service has taken to offer no evidence against me and to accept, as I have always maintained, that I was entirely innocent of any wrongdoing.
“Due to a series of errors made by the CPS I have now had to endure facing criminal charges relating to the same allegation twice and on each occasion those charges have been dismissed.
“As a result I have had to endure adverse publicity and have been placed under considerable and unjustified stress. If the police had properly investigated the case these charges would never have been brought.”
He said because his legal team supplied evidence to the prosecution that “justice has been done.”
Adrienne Gower, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “New material was recently brought to our attention and has now been assessed. We concluded in the light of this new material that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and so the case was dropped.”