Olumide Fadayomi, 27, was wrongly accused of rape after sleeping with the unnamed woman
A jury took just 45 minutes to clear a Nigerian medical student Olumide Fadayomi, 27, studying in the UK of rape and several jurors at Sheffield Crown Court broke down in tears when the judge then revealed the ‘victim’s’ history of crying rape.
Judge Patrick Robertshaw launched an astonishing attack on Crown Prosecution Service lawyers for making Fadayomi stand trial, simply to abide by the woman’s wishes.
He said:’The evidence did not, and was never going to, prove rape. The prime overriding consideration in the CPS’s decision had been merely that the complainant wished the case to go ahead.
‘It was little short of a craven abdication of responsibility for making an independent and fair minded assessment of the case.
‘It is quite astonishing these decisions are made by those who simply do not have experience of what happens in Crown Court because they never come into Crown Court. They sit behind desks and make decisions that result in this sort of trial taking place.’
The 21-year-old woman drove a man to suicide by crying rape and forced a second innocent man to consider taking his own life after falsely accusing him of a similar sex attack.
Despite being exposed in court as a serial liar, the law means the woman cannot be identified and can hide behind the cloak of anonymity.
The judge revealed how 18 months earlier the same woman had made an allegation of rape against a young man who ended up committing suicide. He said the case never reached court because it was ‘lacking in credibility’, but the man killed himself ‘when facing that allegation.’
After failing to have this first ‘rapist’ brought to court, the woman set about framing Fadayomi, a stranger she met and seduced in a nightclub.
The woman claimed Fadayomi attacked her in a house he shared with other students in Walkley, Sheffield, after she met him while ‘tipsy’ in a city centre nightspot last October.
But one of her friends, who was also with her that evening, told the court the woman danced and kissed Fadayomi boasting:’I’m going to have his body tonight.’
The woman later told her friend she was planning to accuse Fadayomi of rape and bragged:’He is not going to get away with it, I’ve got evidence this time.’
Fadayomi told the jury the woman had agreed to sex willingly. He said:’She came into the bedroom, held me and kissed me.
‘Sex took place, she never told me to stop and neither did she resist. I did not force myself on her in any way. Afterwards we held each other and looked into each other’s eyes.’
Fadayomi moved to the UK from Nigeria in 2007 after studying medicine in his home country. He was doing a biomedical sciences course at the University of East London and the incident took place when he went to Sheffield to do a 10-week music production course during a study break.
He had only been in Sheffield four days when he went out with friends. After the case he recalled how he was drinking a glass of champagne at a club when the woman propositioned him.
‘I was on my own by the side of the bar when this particular girl came up to me, and bumped another girl out of the way. She told me she liked me, and liked my perfume. We were exchanging pleasantries, and exchanging numbers, and she said she wouldn’t mind having me that night.’
He said they took a taxi to her house and when he promised to call her tomorrow, she said:’So you’re going to leave me now?’
They returned to his house and she went to the bedroom after turning down the offer of ‘chicken wings and a fizzy drink.’
They began kissing and had sex. Fadayomi said:’Afterwards we were lying on the bed and she received several phone calls. During those phone calls I sensed maybe there was a plan between her and her friend.’
He gave her £8 for a taxi and she left. Fadayomi said he discovered the mobile number she had given him was fake.
He said he went out to buy food at 6am and police were waiting for him on his return. The student denied any wrongdoing but was arrested the next day on suspicion of rape.
Speaking about his ordeal Fadayomi said:’My life has been hell for the last seven months. I thought about taking my own life.
‘I’ve not been able to sleep properly since all this happened. Some of my friends shunned me and my parents in Nigeria were heartbroken and scared of what might happen to me. After the trial I slept properly for the first time, Now I am starting my life all over again.’
He said his accuser needed ‘proper counselling,’ adding:’This kind of allegation could drive other young men to suicide.’
The law currently allows defendants accused of rape to be named. The coalition government intends to re-introduce anonymity for alleged rapists until conviction, but some campaigners argue that a fairer change would be to allow the identification of victims making an allegation.
Naheed Hussain, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS South Yorkshire said: ‘The decision to prosecute this case was taken by a senior lawyer who is a specialist in prosecuting rape cases.
‘We were satisfied there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to court not only from the account given by the complainant but from another witness whose evidence supported that of the complainant.
‘At no time did the judge stop the case from going ahead nor did the defence apply for the case to be dismissed. After hearing all of the evidence from both the prosecution and the defence, the jury took the decision to acquit the defendant.
‘Rape cases are among the most difficult we have to prosecute and the decision to go ahead is only taken after very careful consideration. However, given the comments made by the Judge I have already started to review the case to see if any lessons can be learnt. I will of course write to the judge at the end of that process.’