No verdict on rape charge

Press, 18 February 1986, Page 14

No verdict on rape charge

For the second time in the High Court a jury has failed to reach verdicts on charges of rape and assault against John Frederick King, aged 29, a sickness beneficiary, and it appears unlikely that he will be tried for a third time. A stay of proceedings will probably be issued by the SolicitorGeneral.

After deliberating for more than five hours, the foreman of the jury told Mr Justice Holland that the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on charges agaainst King.

King pleaded not guilty to charges of raping a woman, aged 36, and of assaulting her, on July 4, 1985.

His Honour discharged the jury from having to give a verdict and remanded King on bail to a date to be fixed for a new trial.

Mr C. J. McVeigh appeared for the Crown and Miss E. H. B. Thompson for King. Evidence ' was given that King met the woman, who had been drinking for some hours at the Fitzgerald Arms, and took her to a house in Kilmore Street where he had an upstairs room. She was later seen leaving the building distressed and in tears.

In her address to the jury, Miss Thompson said that the woman’s evidence lacked credibility and the medical evidence went nowhere near proving that rape had been committed.

Under cross-examina-tion, the woman had contradicted evidence she had given earlier and had embellished her story, which was full of inconsistencies. If she had been forced to go to King’s room there had been numerous opportunities when she could have escaped from him or called for help, but she did not, Miss Thompson said.