Falsely accused of rape by colleague

[TheLegohead]

Hello,
I need help/advice.
I've been falsely accused of rape by a colleague 5 months after we had consensual, albeit drunken, sex.
She now claims that she was too drunk too consent, and has no memory of the night apart from the "rape". (Evidence exists to suggest the contrary)
I was arrested by police, given free legal aid, made a full statement (>2 hours of recording) then released without charge or bail pending further investigation.
The investigation has been ongoing for a month.
To me, this is an extremely tricky case as it involves lots of alcohol, lots of unwanted physical contact from her on the night (which I now understand to be sexual assault), and being pursued by her persistently, which ultimately led to me caving and having sex with this individual.

This accusation has taken a significant toll on my mental health.

I've written a summary of the events of the night and previous/later interactions. (I would transcribe it to here but as the investigation is ongoing I don't want to/know if I can publicly release too many details)

My free legal aid solicitor wasn't particularly helpful or reassuring. On the day I was arrested I gave the solicitor an account of what happened, got no advice from her, then launched suddenly into an interview with the investigator where I gave an honest, and lengthy, statement but during this whole time I received no counsel or advice. (In fact the solicitor seemed all too friendly with investigator). Needless to say I now distrust my solicitor has my best interests in mind. But I'm under the impression that I have to use that legal firm until the case is dropped or charges pressed (- is this true?)

I'd like to speak to somebody who understands these issues, i.e. a solicitor, so I can get counsel on what to expect, what I need to do now, and should this go to court how I can best prepare my defence. The last 4 weeks have left me terrified that one persons false accusation could potentially ruin my life, and I don't want to be passive in proving my innocence.

Any help, or advice is much appreciated.

[Franticwithworry]

No, you don't need to stay with the solicitor who accompanied you to your interview. You really need an expert in accusations of this type and there is a thread on here with recommendations. Just having a chat with a solicitor with expertise in this area will help, ease your mind a bit, I'm sure. If you've been browsing this site you will have seen lots of good advice about writing down everything you can remember about the encounter and the lead up to it. Not posting it here is also a good idea as you don't want to make yourself identifiable on a forum as open as this.

Unfortunately, a month is no-where near enough time for the police to deal with complaints of this kind, most of the time. Settle in for a long wait and try to carry on with your everyday life as much as possible. Not easy, I know.

If you need some links to the advice threads on here, come back and let me know and I'll search them out for you but there's no point in me re-inventing the wheel if you've found them already. If you can find a person in real life that you trust that you can share these things with, that is really helpful for you, but there is always support here too. There are people who look in here regularly.