Almost one year on,,,,,,

[jbloggs]

I;ll try and keep this brief,,,, Almost a year ago i was arrested at 4am in the morning on suspicion of rape handcuffed my phone seized and marched off to the local station where i was duly locked up interviewed about 7pm the evening.

Here is the story,,, I;d finished work early and gone for drinks with a pal i do enjoy a drink and proceeded to drink till early afternoon then went home showered changed and back out.
I went back to my local where i''d started before moving onto another establishment. I then went to a local supermarket with plans to go home but on walking towards home met my accuser who had been drinking in another establishment i am known to frequent. I have known my accuser for about 10 years and she is an attractive female (irrelevant) although a lot younger than me and married although at the time she did tell me she was going through a break up.

So cut to the chase....She invited me for drinks and i duly agreed. She went off to the shop to get cigarettes and i met her back at the pub. We chatted and she proceeded to tell me about her troubles, splitting from her husband, losing her job, being of not very good mental health. I duly listened as a friend and reciprocated my troubles. We drank chatted and kissed (im sure she kissed me) As the night wore on drinks flowed & we hit the top shelf also, We left at around 11pm very drunk and i walked the short walk back to hers nothing had been said/agreed as to what was going to happen but she willingly took me back to hers.

Its pretty hazy from here but i vaguely remember bits and bobs,,,,

So initially i was released on bail twice and since have been released under investigation. I got an uodate from the OIC earlier this month stating he would be submitting his report to the cps and expecting a reply in the next 2 months.. My clothes were seized along with my phone and the delay is being put down to covid. There was cctv at the pub which was viewed which hopefully would go in my favour.

Been a wreck for past year but stumbled upon this forum and have read many stories which give me hope, Opinions more than welcome.. Peace out.

[Casehardened]

Hello and welcome to the forum (though, as usual, sorry that you needed to find us!)

The forum is fairly quiet nowadays (most folks seem to head straight over to Facebook!) but another reason for the lack of replies is that the scenario you've described does come up quite a bit as you may have found when reading through the forum threads.

Man meets woman, both have a few drinks, both loose their inhibitions and caution, and hit the sack. Woman wakes up the next morning with post-coital regrets, remembers her boyfriend/husband/family and what will happen if they find out and decides she couldn't possibly have agreed to what happened (strangely AFAIK the man never has this reaction?)

I've been a bit blase but it is certain that the police and CPS will have had the same reaction and will be considering if there is a remote chance that a jury will convict on the evidence you've presented. Almost certainly the case will be that she was too drunk to consent but she is a married woman, not an immature teenager, and matched you in the drinking stakes, so while the 'too drunk to consent' may be technically true what sane jury would convict you of rape?

Almost certainly the delay in disposing of the case is down to it being not an easy one to win as statistically the odds are well in your favour, so hang on in there.....

[jbloggs]

Thanks for the reply and words of encouragement much appreciated

[jbloggs]

So the case has finally been passed to cps around mid to late november i guess so obviously they think there is a case to answer otherwise from what ive read on other posts it could of been nfa'd without even being passed to cps? below is an extract of the email from the OIC after i asked for an update early november.

"I had, where possible, sent updates to your solicitor; hopefully these have been passed on, although they would only have been brief.
The enquiry is moving forward but has suffered with the unexpected delays that Covid has been throwing at us.
I have, as always with this type of investigation, had to utilise the services of scientific and digital forensic teams to provide me with analytical results.
Of the two, the digital forensics has taken the longest. I only last week finally got their report back!!
The good news now is, this means I am in a position to complete my report the CPS (crown prosecution service) who will make a decision on the outcome of the investigation, options being a charge, no further action, or taskings with additional work before a decision is made, although the latter is rare in these instances as we are aware of what they require and ensure that this is all tended to prior to submission.
I expect to have completed my report in the next couple of weeks; they are lengthy and tend end up around 15k word reports.
It is unfortunate, but due to the very nature of an investigation like this, it can take up to 2 years to get a charging decision. However, in this instance, I should be getting a decision within the next couple of months."

So i guess my question is where from here obviously another waiting game now for cps...can i request my phone belongings back? will i get a phonecall letter or email to let me know the outcome and will this come from the police or my solicitor ?

[Peter1975]

Hi,

Although the majority of NFA's are police decisions, the CPS charge about 65% of the cases referred to them ( off the top of my head ) so try not to worry about that unduly.

Yes, you can request your belongings back. They should be finished with your phone by the sounds of it. Ask either your solicitor or the officer in the case directly. Be patient and polite!

Police can be a bit hit and miss with communication but they will usually let you or your solicitor know the outcome somehow. If there is a charge, you will receive a court summons through the post, sometimes without warning. The police seem to be less good at communicating bad news.

Hopefully you will have had a good read around on the forum and will have been writing your version of events down and adding to it as stuff comes back to you.

Stay positive. Hang in there.

[jbloggs]

Hello

Spoke to investigating officer who has denied the return of belongings until a charging decision is made. Not too fussed tbh. Main point is he stated he had heard back from CPS & they had requested further information, obviously he didn't state what but just wondering whether this is a good thing or not ? Quote from earlier reply below.

The good news now is, this means I am in a position to complete my report the CPS (crown prosecution service) who will make a decision on the outcome of the investigation, options being a charge, no further action, or taskings with additional work before a decision is made, although the latter is rare in these instances as we are aware of what they require and ensure that this is all tended to prior to submission.

[Casehardened]

It certainly sounds optimistic, after all the only reason for requesting further information to make a charging decision is because they haven't enough at the moment! If the OIC has done his job properly where is he going to get this extra information from to justify a charge; as it's a FA he's more likely to turn up more stuff to exonerate you!

Hang on in there........

[jbloggs]

Finally had an update, i have to attend local station to be further interviewed, this evening solicitor advised there has been some dna found so will be asked about this.

[Casehardened]

Did you feel that the interview went well for you?

[jbloggs]

Wasn't too bad, they have some "weak" dna apparently cannot distinguish whether it's saliva, semen skin cells etc found on accuser, i simply advised we spent the evening together and so transfer of such is highly likely. Think they are going to try to to re-examine to try and determine what it actually is, didn't mention anything else and advised a decision should be not too fa away.