Charlotte Godber represents man acquitted of 10 counts of indecent assault, including buggery, charged under the Sexual Offences Act 1956. The defendant, Mr V, was accused of 10 counts of historic sexual assaults dating back over 35 years.
Mr V had known the complainant from a young age and had worked with his father. The defence case was that Mr V and the complainant had started a consensual sexual relationship at a time when the complainant was over the age of 16 and Mr V was in his mid twenties. That relationship had come to a natural end when the complainant moved on to another relationship.
Unbeknown to Mr V, the complainant had been sexually abused and prostituted by another man (RW), whom Mr V knew. Some of the charges alleged that Mr V had acted together with RW to abuse the complainant. RW was never prosecuted and died in 2002.
In 2016 the complainant had turned up on Mr V’s doorstep, unannounced, to confront Mr V and extort money from him.
The complainant made covert recordings of conversations with Mr V in an attempt to trap Mr V in an admission / confession. Those recordings lasted several hours and were played in full to the jury. Further meetings between the complainant and Mr V were not recorded by the complainant, or at least no recordings were disclosed of those meetings. It was at those meetings that the complainant, accompanied by a friend, demanded £500,000 by way of a ‘draft Part 36 offer’ and made threats against Mr V’s life, his livelihood and members of his family if he didn’t comply.
In the course of a two-week trial at Isleworth Crown Court, Charlotte sensitively cross-examined the complainant and his partner – both of whom gave evidence behind screens. Charlotte relied on the very few items of documentary evidence available to Mr V - including a Christmas card and envelope postmarked November 1990, to demonstrate that the complainant was wrong about the dates and locations of where, and crucially when, the alleged assaults could have taken place.
Mr V gave evidence in his own defence, as did his partner of 18 years, and his nephew gave evidence by video link from Australia.
The jury acquitted Mr V of all charges.
Charlotte Godber was instructed and assisted by Graeme Hydari and Kit Gamble of Hodge Jones & Allen LLP
Charlotte Godber