Stephen Brawn who filmed himself having sex with a sleeping woman then posted the video on Facebook has been cleared of rape. The woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, complained to police that she had been raped.
The woman who only found out about the video clip when a relative spotted that Brawn had uploaded it on to his Facebook page on May 30 told officers she had not consented to having sex when she was asleep and as a result had not given permission for it to be filmed.
If you missed the story, please read it HERE
A jury of eight women and four men took an hour deliberating the facts of the case before returning a unanimous not guilty verdict, following the two-day trial at Ipswich Crown Court.
Earlier 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.’
The jury was told that the one minute video clip, taken on Brawn’s mobile phone, clearly identified the woman and showed she was asleep.
Prosecutor Charles Myatt said the woman claimed that she previously had no idea that Brawn had sex with her while she was asleep and had recorded it.
He added: ‘She says she wouldn’t have consented to sex between them being videoed while she was asleep.’
Mr Myatt said Brawn laughed when police arrested him on June 4 on suspicion of raping the woman at her home in Ipswich, Suffolk. He then made no comment when interviewed by police.
Brawn told the court how the woman had asked him to record him having sex with her while she was asleep so that she could watch it the next morning.
He said that he showed her the recording in the morning after she asked to see it and she then initiated sex with him.
Mr Brawn said the case ‘should never have gone to court’. He admitted filming the encounter but denied rape
Asked by his barrister Steven Dyble why he had posted the footage on his Facebook page he said: ‘I don’t know.’ Brawn said he had laughed when he was arrested because he could not believe the woman had accused him of raping her.
He said that he and the woman had been exchanged intimate photographs on their mobile phones and he had also filmed her performing a sex act on him. His friend Daniel Marden also gave evidence in the trial, saying that Brawn had told him that the woman had consented to being filmed.
Mr Marden said the conversation happened shortly after Brawn posted the video on Facebook and before the woman made her complaint to police.
Last night jobless Brawn who is of no fixed abode said: ‘I should never have been charged in the first place.
‘I have been under a huge amount of stress due to this case hanging over me. I haven’t been sleeping or eating properly for months.
‘I got remanded in custody for two weeks after I was charged and I was banged up on the sex offenders’ wing at Norwich prison.
‘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.’
