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Delighted: Byron Davies yesterday after being cleared of rapeA middle-aged council chief executive told of his nine-month nightmare yesterday after being cleared of rape.
Byron Davies, 52, was accused by a married 26-year-old who worked for the same council of having sex with her when she was too drunk to give proper consent.
He insisted she had targeted him in a bar, had behaved in a ‘flirtatious’ manner and had not been that drunk, despite the strong lagers he had bought her.
After being cleared in just over an hour, the £100,000-a-year divorcee said the case should never have been brought and that he was considering legal action over detectives’ ‘lazy’ handling of the investigation.
The trial, which revolved around a one-night-stand at the father of two’s apartment, comes amid debate over whether men accused of rape should be granted anonymity, like their alleged victims.
Mr Davies, who remains suspended from his job as chief executive of Conwy County Borough Council in North Wales, said he was devastated and angry that he had been accused.
‘Obviously I am absolutely delighted and thrilled with the decision that has been reached today,’ he added.
He had ‘an element of sympathy’ for his accuser, and said ‘she may require some kind of psychiatric help’.
Mr Davies said he had been eating by himself at a hotel in Conwy after work on March 23 last year when the woman began staring at him then approached him, asking if he was Byron Davies.
Chance encounter: Mr Davies and the woman involved bumped into each other at the Castle Hotel in ConwyA council employee, she had spent the evening drinking with a male friend. Mr Davies admitted he had been flattered by the attention of an attractive woman half his age and bought her at least two lagers.
He claimed she had asked for his help in moving to a new job at the council, to which he had replied that he could not help.
He denied she was drunk and said she had repeatedly asked him if he had a room at the hotel. Mr Davies told the jury he had begun to leave for home, but she told him she was ‘always on my own’ so in the end he offered to drive her back to his flat.
He said he had asked her if she wanted to go to bed, even though he had been anxious and nervous about having sex with her. At about six o’clock the following morning, Mr Davies said he got up for work, waking the woman with difficulty.
He denied asking her for ‘a quick one’ but offered her a lift home and claimed she said she would rather walk. ‘Not very gentlemanly, it was a one-night stand and I apologise for that,’ he told the court.
But he added: ‘There is no doubt in my mind she targeted me. She knew my name, she sought out my company.’
Evening meal: The alleged victim ate at the Raj Indian restaurant on the night of the incidentThe prosecution argued that the woman was so drunk that she could not properly consent to sex.
She described herself as ‘happily married’ and said she didn’t remember much about going back to his flat, but said: ‘He kept grabbing me and I told him “I am a married woman, I am not interested”,’ she told police. ‘Why on earth would I want to kiss him? He’s late 40s, early 50s.’ But under cross-examination at Mold Crown Court she was accused of being ‘a wilful person, who lacks judgement, who is impulsive and capable of hurting people if you want to’.
She admitted once cutting her own throat after an argument with her husband but blamed it on a short period of instability.
Judge Niclas Parry told Mr Davies he was discharged with his good character ‘very much intact’.
Last night the council said it had appointed an independent QC to oversee ‘a disciplinary investigation into matters relating to the arrest’. It is understood Mr Davies may be asked to leave his post in return for a substantial pay-off.
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