GT Stewart Solicitors represented a client at Leeds Crown Court who was charged with four counts of Rape (contrary to S.1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003) and two counts of assault by penetration (contrary to S.2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003). The prosecution case against our client is that he had raped and sexually assaulted a female whilst she was asleep. We were able to identify that our client had highly relevant messages and videos on his phone which supported him in his defence and undermined the prosecution’s case. A substantial amount of time was spent seeking to persuade the Crown to provide us with a full phone download of our clients phone, which was not provided to us until the trial had already started. The material was of such significance that the Jury in the trial was discharged to allow the Crown time to review this evidence.

We made further representations to the Crown identifying the evidential difficulties in the case. They accepted that the material undermined their case and offered no evidence against our client. A not guilty verdict was then entered into the record.

Our client was represented by Ed Youlton, Solicitor-Advocate from our Leeds office, who instructed Eddison Flint of Exchange Chambers to represent our client at Court.