Man cleared of raping student after court hears she wrote 'I was only raped - chill out'

Alleged victim says recounting the event to the police 'is going to be so fun'

George Owen was cleared of all charges following a week-long trial at Minshull Street Crown Court (George Owen/ Cavendish)

A trainee accountant accused of raping a student during a night out has been cleared of wrongdoing after it emerged she sent a Facebook message to friends saying: "I was only raped — chill the f*** out."

The 19-year-old did not initially report the matter to police, but came forward after seeing Mr Owen in a pub by chance around a year later.

Mr Owen was cleared of all charges following a week-long trial at Minshull Street Crown Court, during which the woman's messages where she minimised the alleged attack were read to to the jury.

The 19-year old 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*** out."

She added: “I'm going to ring them (the 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.”

Mr Owen, from Bury was later arrested, but said the woman willingly had sex with him. He was later charged with rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.

Jurors took two hours and 14 minutes to reach their unanimous verdict, which was met with cheers from the public gallery.

The court heard the encounter occurred in June 2015 when the student was out with a college friend in Bury.

The pair went to Yates Wine Lodge, where the alleged victim met a male friend of Mr Owen. The teenager then went with him to a nearby Pics bar.

Once there, the man began making drunken advances towards the student. Mr Owen apologised for his friend's behaviour and offered to pay for the woman to get a taxi home.

Yet the woman said Mr Owen followed her outside and repeatedly sexually assaulted her in a nearby alleyway, before throwing a £5 note at her, saying: “I think you should go home now.”

She told a friend about the incident but did not report the encounter to police. The court heard that one of her tutors at her college was concerned about the way she was behaving and she attended the rape crisis centre at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester.

She was eventually interviewed about the allegations on 5 April last year and called police again when she spotted Mr Owen two weeks later playing pool with friends in a pub.

Mr Owen from Hawkshaw, Bury, later told police: “I was completely shocked to get accused of this. We met this girl and got chatting and I bought us both some drinks and we continued laughing and chatting. 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 2/3 mins and I will come and meet you."

”She stood up and left straight away, which I took as a sign of her wanting to have sex. I left a few minutes later and when I went over the road she was there waiting for me. I'm not the sort of person to do this. But she was a good looking girl and I was attracted to her. I thought she was interested in me to be honest. She gave me all the signs.

“She was smiling and laughing and we were stood close together. We were talking flirtatiously, we didn't kiss or touch or anything. Then just like I told you, we went outside and had sex.

"I would not do it again. I wasn't thinking at the time, I know it's not right to ask someone to have sex with you after you've known them for like an hour. I've never done it before. I never want to do it again, not after all this."

In court he added: “I never used physical force. She didn't push me away she didn't say no. It was completely consensual. I had a girlfriend at the time so we didn't exchange numbers or anything. 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."

False allegations of rape are rare, with the Crown Prosecution Service estimating that only between 3 and 12 per cent of rape allegations are false.

Only around 15 per cent of the 60,000 women supported by Rape Crisis every year report the matter to the police.

Cavendish Press contributed to this report