Juries generally comes to reasonable results in my view and tend to get cases right despite the criticism that one reads in the media or popular culture. However, there are cases that leave me baffled. Often this is due to the fact that not all facts have been reported accurately, but some are left a mystery. One such case is out of London this week where a jury spent just 30 minutes to acquit Saudi millionaire Ehsan Abdulaziz, 46, of rape. Abdelaziz’s defense? he accidentally tripped, fell on her, and may have penetrated her by mistake.

Abdulaziz met two women at London’s West End Cirque le Soir nightclub and took them to his flat at 4:30 am where they continued to drink. He then had sex with one of the women while the second woman fell asleep on the couch. He says that he went into the room to see if the alleged victim needed a tee-shirt or taxi home when she pulled him on top of her. He said that he fell on her and may have penetrated her at that time. He insisted that she was forcing him on her, put his hands between her legs, and the semen found on the alleged victim may have come from the earlier sex with her friend. He told the jury “I’m fragile, I fell down but nothing ever happened, between me and this girl nothing ever happened.”

The alleged victim says that she woke and found him having sex with her. Later swabs taken from the alleged victim found traces of his semen in her vagina.

There is something else about the trial that is inexplicable. Judge Martin Griffiths allowed Abdulaziz to give evidence in private. This may be a quirk of English law but why allow such an accommodation?

Abdulaziz insisted at trial “I always respect ladies and I have a sister myself.”

Perhaps some of our English readers have more information on the trial but from over here this sounds perfectly insane.