Top Rape Defence Barrister

Although a judge in a rape trial had not specifically directed the jury that evidence given by witnesses of what the complainant had told them after the incident was not independent evidence of the acts complained of, there had, in the circumstances, been no real risk of the jury assuming that it was.

Appeals against convictions for numerous and various sexual offences were dismissed where the judge had correctly admitted evidence of the making of complaints under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 s.120(2) and evidence as to bad character, and had not misled the jury in his directions.