News & Insights

Sophie Evans secures acquittal for 18 year old charged with rape and false imprisonment

16/10/2024

Sophie’s client, who was aged 17 at the time of his arrest, faced a nine count indictment consisting of allegations made by two complainants. The first complainant alleged that the defendant had physically assaulted her, strangled her and threatened her with a large kitchen knife for a number of hours at a relative’s address. She alleged that he had then forced her to travel across London to his own address, before smuggling her into the property inside a laundry bag. She alleged that over the following two days he had imprisoned her at his address against her will, where he continued to physically assault her and orally rape her.

Following a 6 day trial at Woolwich Crown Court, the defendant was acquitted by the jury of all eight counts against the first complainant. 

The defendant was acquitted of one count of assault against the second complainant following a successful submission of no case to answer at the close of the prosecution case. 

The case involved careful witness handling of three teenage prosecution witnesses. It also involved legal arguments regarding evidence of previous sexual conduct and the admissibility of bad character of the defendant and a prosecution witness.

Sophie was instructed and supported throughout the case by Melissa Ansah and Brendan McGahan of Murray Hughman.

Authors

Related Practice Areas

Popular Insights

Tom Edwards looks at the impact of the shift from Joint Enterprise to Common Purpose in the five years since…

Articles
19/08/2021

Ben Hargreaves explores the inherent challenges in the admissibility of sexual history in sex cases. Section 41 of the Youth…

Articles
20/04/2020

Silas Lee, pupil barrister, reviews the statutory regime on witness anonymity. Anonymous witness orders are most commonly sought by the…

Articles
11/01/2021

An analysis of the law on fitness to plead and stand trial in the magistrates’ courts: Silas Lee reviews the…

Articles
06/06/2021

Portfolio Builder

Select the practice areas that you would like to download or add to the portfolio

Download    Add to portfolio   
Portfolio
Title Type CV Email

Remove All

Download


Click here to share this shortlist.
(It will expire after 30 days.)