Ched Evans Was Found Not Guilty Of Rape

Wales international footballer Ched
Evans was found not guilty of rape
by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court on
Friday following a retrial.
Evans, who plays for third-tier
Chesterfield, was accused of raping
a woman in a hotel room near Rhyl,
north Wales, in May 2011.
The 27-year-old was previously
found guilty of rape, but the jury
was told that the Court of Appeal
had quashed the conviction and
ordered a retrial.

The verdict, which the jury reached
in just three hours after being asked
to consider the evidence by trial
judge Mrs Justice Nicola Davies
earlier on Friday, ended Evans’s
five-year fight to clear his name.
“Mr Evans you are discharged and
you can leave the dock,” Davies told
Evans as she brought the eight-day
trial to a close.
Evans was seen crying and hugging
partner Natasha Massey, who has
been staunch in her support of his
case, after the jury foreman read
out the verdict.
From the start, Evans insisted he
was innocent of rape, saying he had
been invited to “join in” by a fellow
footballer in the early hours.
He admitted to having sex with the
teenager, and cheating on Massey,
also his girlfriend at the time, but
always insisted the sex had been
consensual.
Defence lawyer Judy Khan QC said
Evans answered every single question he was asked by police and
that officers would never have
known about the sex session had it
not been for the footballer’s honesty.
In his defence, Evans said he
walked into a hotel room where
fellow footballer Clayton McDonald
was having sex with the woman,
adding McDonald then asked her if
he could join in, to which she
replied: “Yes.”
Evans was adamant he had
consensual sex with the woman
before leaving via a fire exit door
when he realised he was cheating
on his girlfriend.
Prosecutors, however, alleged that
the complainant was too drunk to
consent.
In her summing up of the evidence,
Davies told the jury of seven men
and five women that the issue of
consent was key to the case, adding
that drunken consent was still
consent.
“Your decision must be made
calmly, objectively and without
emotion,” she said. “You are not
here to judge the morals of any
person in this case and this includes
the complainant and the defendant.
Evans and Massey are still in a
relationship. They plan to marry
and have a nine-month-old son.