Man Cleared Of Rape Charges After The Victim's Facebook Message To Her Friends Was Revealed In Court
George Owen was originally charged with rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.
Metro After a woman told police 21-year-old George Owen forced himself on her after they left a bar in Greater Manchester, he was arrested for rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.
According to the accuser, she met Owen a year before the arrest in June 2015 when she was 18. She claimed they were hanging out at a bar with some friends when one of Owen's buddies started chatting her up and asking for sex.
He stepped in, apologized for his friend's behavior and even offered to pay for a taxi to bring her home.
But when they went outside, she said that he attacked her.
The woman claimed he took her to a nearby alley and repeatedly assaulted her before throwing money at her and saying "I think you should go home now."
Though the accuser told her friend about the incident, she didn't go to police until a year later when she saw Owen at a pub and recognized him.
Before reporting the alleged assault, one of her tutors in college said they were concerned about how she was behaving and explained to the court that she visited a rape crisis center. She was initially interviewed about the allegations in April 2016.
However, police also uncovered Facebook messages the victim wrote that said: "OMG hahahahaha my mum knows. My mum started crying. She wants to hold my hand to go through it all with me. I was only raped chill the f..k out."
"I’m going to ring them (police) tomorrow and tell them I’ll do it. My mum wants to come so I’m going to ask whether I can do it while she’s on holiday. It’s going to be so fun."
During the trial, Owen told the court that the sex they had outside the bar was consensual.
"I bought us both some drinks and we continued laughing and chatting," he said. "I then said to her 'Would you like to go outside and have sex?' She said yes so I said, 'Meet me over there over the road in 2 to 3 minutes, and I will come and meet you.'"
Owen said the woman got up and left, and when he went over to the road she was waiting. He said he never used physical force, and she never said no or pushed him away.
He also mentioned that he had a girlfriend at the time, so that's why he didn't get her number.
"I didn’t get her details because I knew pretty much straight after that it wasn’t going to go anywhere and that it was a mistake."
The court cleared him of all charges.
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Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTango’s Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz).