[Trigger Warning for description of sexual assault.]
Ehsan Abdulaziz, a 46-year-old British millionaire who responded to allegations that he raped an 18-year-old girl by first saying “she’ll have to prove it” and later claiming he fell and accidentally penetrated her, has been cleared of charges.
In August of 2014, Abdulaziz reportedly met up at a nightclub with the 18-year-old complainant and a friend of hers that he had known for several months. He later gave them a ride and invited them into his house for a drink. The 18-year-old fell asleep on Abdulaziz’s sofa, and says she woke up in the morning to find him raping her.
Prosecutor Jonathan Davies explains,
She woke up with the defendant kissing her and his penis in her vagina, she was wearing shorts and he had pulled them to one side […] She said, ‘What are you doing?’ He said ‘It’s fine,’ indicating that her friend was asleep. She got up to find her friend, tried to wake her but couldn’t. She then tried to get out of the flat as quickly as she could.
According to The Daily News, Abdulaziz “initially claimed the teenager pulled him onto her and placed his hand between her legs.” However, he later changed his account after being re-interviewed by police in May and informed that traces of his semen were found on the complainant. According to Davies,
On this occasion he said after he had sex with the complainant’s friend his penis was still erect and he had semen on his hands when he went into the living room.
He said in the second interview she pushed his hands down on to her vagina. He said that he did fall onto her and his penis may have penetrated her vagina. You may consider, members of the jury, him changing the account he was giving.
During trial, Abdulaziz suggested that the semen found on the 18-year-old may have been on his hands from having sex with her friend earlier. Via The Independent,
He claimed he had gone to see if the young woman wanted a t-shirt to sleep in, or a taxi home. But he said she pulled him on top of her and placed his hand between her legs.
His semen and DNA was found inside the young woman, but he said it was possible he had semen on his hands from having sex with the 24-year-old earlier.
In the evidence, Mr Abdulaziz showed how the girl had put her hand behind his head to pull him towards her, which is how he says he fell.
He said: “I’m fragile, I fell down but nothing ever happened, between me and this girl nothing ever happened.”
During the trial, Judge Martin Griffiths reportedly allowed the defense to present evidence in private for twenty minutes. The jury cleared Abdulaziz of charges after 30 minutes of deliberation.
(via Jezebel and Boing Boing, image via Flickr/Brian Turner)
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