A British man was cleared of rape today after he filmed himself having sex with a sleeping girl and posted a video of the act on Facebook.
22-year-old
Stephen Brawn reportedly told the jury at
Ipswich Crown Court that he should “never have been charged,”
UK Mirror reports.
The woman, who may or may not have been passed out drunk during the encounter, told police she had not given her consent for the sex nor for it to be filmed.
She said she only found out about the video when a relative spotted it on Facebook last May.
Brawn admitted to posting the one-minute clip but claimed the woman had given consent to him filming them having sex while she slept beforehand.
A jury of eight women and four men debated the case for an hour before announcing a not-guilty verdict.
Judge John Devaux told the jury: “It is often said that the crown court is not a court of morals. He is charged with rape and you won’t convict him simply because he put footage of the act on Facebook.”
Prosecutor Charles Myatt said Brawn laughed when he was arrested on June 4. Brawn told the court that the woman wanted him to record the sex so she could watch it the following morning.
According to
UK Mirror, the woman did ask Brawn to see the video the next morning and then had sex with him almost immediately afterwards.
When asked by barrister Steven Dyble why he posted the footage online, Brawn simply said: “I don’t know.”
Brawn told the court that he laughed at his arrest because he and the woman had exchanged nude photographs on their phones many times and he had filmed her performing sex acts on him before.
Brawn’s friend even testified that Brawn had told him the woman had provided consent to being filmed.
“I should never have been charged in the first place,” Brawn said.
“This case should never have gone to court if the police had done their job properly. They should have looked at this woman’s other mobile phone, which would have shown we had been swapping intimate pictures of each other.”
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