Rape Charges Dropped After IPhone Allegedly Yields “Deleted” Messages Showing Consensual Relations

While England has backed away from extending anonymity to rape defendants (as with rape victims), Australia has a new false rape case involving two anonymous parties. Notably, however, the woman is not being charged with a false report despite the allegation that she may have tried to destroy evidence that the sex was consensual. The evidence was reportedly found among an IPhone’s deleted messages.

Prosecutors have been ordered to pay more than $30,000 in legal costs in the case.

At the center of the dispute is an IPhone that yielded deleted messages after forensic examination — evidence that led to the dropping of five rape charges against a 60-something man known anonymously as Robert. He was a property manager who reportedly had sex with the 18-year-old daughter of a friend. After she accused him of rape, he insisted it was consensual sex that occurred on the way to dog shows and at a mansion of a client.

The allegations led to Robert losing a job with the Catholic Church that afforded him over $100,000 in the prior three years. He faced five sentences of up to 14 years for each charge. This could be the basis for a lawsuit on his part against his former accuser — something Robert says that he is considering. Yet, there is no mention of criminal charges against the woman after an expert retrieved more than 300 deleted text messages and phone calls from the alleged victim’s IPhone.

Robert has asked for a police investigation of the woman known only as Jessica.

Source: SMH