The defendant was charged with 10 counts of rape and 3 of intentional strangulation against a former partner. The incidents were alleged to have taken place against a background of a coercive and controlling relationship in which it was said the defendant regularly used physical violence and forced the complainant to spend over £4000 on him.
However, analysis of over 1000 pages of phone messages provided only 4 days before the s. 28 hearing, together with bank records and CCTV provided a different picture. Following cross examination of the complainant, in the words of the judge, one of the rape counts was “holed below the waterline” and the prosecution were directed to undertake a review of the case by watching the entirety of the cross examination.
Unusually, having done that, the prosecution offered no evidence on all counts and the defendant was able to resume his military training which had been put on hold for almost 3 years.
