Middle-aged ‘Sugar Daddy’, 50, is cleared of raping 14-year-old internet date after judge ruled the girl ‘told so many lies’ the trial could not continue
- Adrian Harvey admitted the pair had sex onboard his houseboat the Wild Goose
- They met on a website which matches young women with older successful men
- On their first date they took a cab to the boat moored on the Grand Union Canal
A middle-aged ‘Sugar Daddy’ was cleared of raping his 14-year-old internet date today after the judge ruled the girl had told so many lies the trial could not continue.
Adrian Harvey, 50, always admitted the pair had sex onboard his houseboat called the Wild Goose but insisted it was consensual and he believed she was 18 years old.
They had met on the SeekingArrangement website, which aims to match young women with older successful men, and on their first date took a cab to the houseboat moored on the Grand Union Canal in west London, near Mitre Bridge, Scrubs Lane, Kensal Rise.
She had registered as an 18-year-old on the site and told Harvey she was ‘into older men’ and enjoyed bondage, even bringing along a harness she had ordered from a BDSM site.
The girl lied to police that she had met Harvey the day before claiming he had given her £200 cash during a brief ten-minute hearing.
CCTV at King’s Cross station proved she met another man and she later admitted to officers having sex with him at a local hotel.
Adrian Harvey (pictured), 50, always admitted the pair had sex onboard his houseboat called the Wild Goose, but insisted it was consensual and he believed she was 18 years old
‘The evidence is so weak I must allow my discretion and allow this defence application,’ announced Isleworth Crown Court Judge Edward Connell.
‘The defence’s application is that the credibility of the complainant’s evidence is so demonstrably unreliable and the prosecution admit there are lies.’
The Crown Prosecution Service always conceded the girl told lies in her statements but told the jury at the start of the trial her evidence regarding what occurred in the houseboat was consistent.
She collected the harness from a schoolfriend’s house after telling her family she was going there to do homework and then travelled by train to meet Harvey.
They had already been communicating online having met on the adult-only website.
‘She embarked almost immediately in conversations of a sexual nature,’ said Judge Connell. ‘She said she was into older men and that her biggest kink was bondage.
‘She said she was submissive and told the defendant: “You make me so horny,” and had a harness.
She said: ‘”You will have to help me figure out how to put it on,” when they met on the date.’
They had met on the SeekingArrangement website, which aims to match young women with older successful men, and on their first date took a cab to the houseboat moored on the Grand Union Canal (pictured) in west London, near Mitre Bridge, Scrubs Lane, Kensal Rise
The girl and Harvey had sex in the houseboat and by then relatives had made a total of 143 missed phone calls to the complainant.
Her family told police they feared she had been ‘drugged, kidnapped and about to be raped’ and the girl met her father at a local petrol station when Harvey left the houseboat to collect his car.
During her evidence she suggested Harvey had drugged a glass of water he offered her, but tests proved this was not the case and the paramedics called to the scene said she did not appear to be under the influence of anything.
She also deleted all of her WhatsApp messages with Harvey.
When police asked why she was on the ‘Sugar Daddy’ website the girl said: ‘I wanted some money to buy new clothes. I searched different ways to make money.’
‘She admits she has lied or has been shown to have lied,’ added Judge Connell. ‘The defence say almost everything she has said has been untruthful.’
Today the jury were directed to unanimously find Harvey not guilty to two counts of raping the girl, plus one count of sexually assaulting her on March 15 last year.
The trial heard she travelled to meet Harvey at Liverpool Street railway station dressed in a skirt, fishnet tights, long socks and platform shoes.
Today the jury at Isleworth Crown Court (above) were directed to unanimously find Harvey not guilty to two counts of raping the girl, plus one count of sexually assaulting her on March 15 last year
In her video-recorded evidence the girl said: ‘I got onto the boat and he told me to put my bags down and gave me a glass of water and said: “Take your clothes off.”
‘I started to take them off and after he started touching me he had sex with me and then started touching me again.
‘I don’t know if he put anything in it other than the water. There is always a chance I might have been drugged or something.
‘I felt fine and then afterwards I felt really sleepy and got really tired, really quickly.’
The girl told police she became frightened as the cab travelled across central London towards the houseboat.
‘I thought I might get killed. I did not know what was going to happen and that I might not see my family again.’
Prosecutor Paul Fairley told the jury: ‘The complainant told a number of lies in this case, but the Crown say she is consistent about what happened on the boat.
‘The defendant accepts having sex with her, but says he thought she was eighteen years old and says that in his police interview.
‘He says it was all consensual, not a sexual assault, not a rape. That is the $64,000 question you are going to have to solve.’
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