Thursday, 10 April 2014

Britain's former deputy speaker cleared of raping a university student and sexually assaulting six other men over a 10-year period

LONDON: Former deputy speaker of the House of Commons Nigel Evans has been cleared of raping a university student and sexually assaulting six other men over a 10-year period.

After a five-week high profile trial at Preston crown court, Evans was cleared of all charges between 2003 and March last year of abusing his power to sexually assault young workers of House of Commons.

Evans had resigned from his post after he was arrested by the police.


The flamboyant Evans had then said, "May I reassure everyone at this time that I will robustly defend my innocence. I am certain of two things: firstly that I am innocent, and secondly that my innocence will be demonstrated".


"Having informed my fellow deputy speakers Lindsay Hoyle and Dawn Primarolo, I can confirm I will now resign as deputy speaker," Evans had added.


The jury heard character references from more than 30 witnesses about Evans, including three Commons deputy speakers and the Tory MPs.


Evans' barrister, Peter Wright told the jury about a series of inconsistencies between what the student — who allegedly had been raped by Evans — told officers and what he told the jury.


Wringht said, "There was no pushing on to the bed, no forcible undoing of trousers, no struggle to push his attacker off. In fact the truth was the young man had consented to have sex with a man more than twice his age".


The 55-year-old MP for Ribble Valley was elated by the judgement.


Evans (55) was first arrested in May on suspicion of rape and sexual assault on two men.


The MP proud of his Welsh roots, known to be a vociferous gay rights campaigner, having addressed a gay pride rally in London last year wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "I am deputy speaker of the Commons" was later released without charge.


He was however re-arrested in June over a further three counts of indecent assault, some dating back to 2002.


Evans was a son of a news agent who has been an MP for Ribble Valley since 1992.


Evans had branded all cases of sexual assault against him "completely false".


Evans himself is gay. He came out with the announcement as being homosexual in 2010, the same year he was elected to his current post.


He said he was fed up living a lie after political enemies had threatened blackmail over his sexuality.


He once said "I thought to myself, 'I'm telling people I'm gay — it's time I did something about it and told everyone'."


Later, the MP said, "I marched for the millions of gay people in parts of the world where they live in fear with no prospect of marching freely themselves and face public humiliation and private despair. I marched for anyone who asks the question, 'Why does he march?' And finally, I needed to march for me."






Categories:

0 comments:

Post a Comment