No Charges Brought in Historic Rape Allegation Against International Client

The Client

Our client was a high-net-worth businessman based in Dubai with longstanding family, business, and community responsibilities across several jurisdictions. He was a man of international standing whose professional success and personal reputation had been built carefully over decades.

The Allegation

He was arrested in the UK on suspicion of the historic rape of a family member. The complaint related to events said to have taken place many years earlier, during a period when he was living in the UK. If pursued, the allegation carried not only the risk of Crown Court proceedings and a lengthy custodial sentence but also the catastrophic reputational consequences that a charge of this nature would bring within his family, business networks, and wider international community.

Our Strategy and Work

We intervened decisively at the pre-charge stage, preparing a comprehensive package of representations aimed at preventing the case from progressing further.

Our analysis exposed the evidential deficiencies at the heart of the allegation. This was a complaint made many years after the events it described, unsupported by any corroborative evidence. The complainant’s account was riddled with inconsistencies and fell well short of the reliability required to justify a criminal prosecution.

We also addressed the prejudice created by delay. The alleged incident was historic, meaning that a fair trial would have been impossible. Memories had faded, records were no longer available, and there was no physical or contemporaneous evidence to test the claim.

Alongside these arguments, we set out our client’s impeccable good character. He had no previous convictions, a long track record of family and business responsibility, and a life of achievement entirely inconsistent with the allegations. We also made clear the international reputational consequences. For a man of his global profile, the mere laying of a charge, irrespective of the eventual outcome, would have caused reputational annihilation.

Finally, we directed the investigators back to the Crown Prosecution Service’s Full Code Test. Even taking the complainant’s account at its highest, there was no realistic prospect of conviction. Without evidential sufficiency, the case simply could not proceed.

Outcome

Our submissions were decisive. The police accepted that the evidential stage of the Full Code Test was not satisfied and closed the case. No charges were brought. The outcome spared our client not only the risk of a criminal trial but also the devastating reputational fallout that would have accompanied it.

Comments from Jared McNally

“When an allegation is historic, the burden of proof is often insurmountable for the prosecution, but only if the defence makes that plain at the right time. In this case, the risk was not only custody but reputational annihilation. By exposing the evidential void and the unfairness of proceeding, we achieved the only acceptable result: no charge.” — Jared McNally, Clifford Johnston & Co.

Clifford Johnston & Co is a leading Criminal Defence Firm in specialising in Pre-Charge Representation, based in Manchester and representing clients across England and Wales on a privately funded basis. We provide strategic advice and robust advocacy during the early stages of a Police Investigative Defence when your liberty or reputation is under threat.