Note: In the following article, the accused was acquitted by a jury in just 35 minutes. Yet, over a week after that decision, he has not been reinstated to his job as a firefighter. To add insult to injury, he has been unable to see one of his children while this was happening.
A firefighter has been left battling to save his job after being cleared of attempting to rape a young mum at his Midland flat.
Adrian Jones, 38, was accused of attacking the woman at his home in Pelsall, near Walsall, following a night of heavy drinking in October.
The dad-of-two was arrested and charged with three serious sex offences and was suspended from his job at West Midlands Fire Service.
Mr Jones was cleared of all charges by a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court just over a week ago - but his suspension has not yet been lifted by bosses.
Yet his accuser, who is in her 20s, cannot be named for legal reasons as suspected rape victims are forbidden from being identified under British law.
Now a close friend of Mr Jones has told how his life has been wrecked by the false allegations.
They said: "The worst thing in all this is that Adrian's name has been dragged through the mud while the woman, who made up that he tried to rape her, remains anonymous.
"British law is so unfair in this respect. He should never have been named as he didn't do anything wrong.
"Why should she get all the protection and be allowed to make such serious allegations about someone and not be named?''
''Adrian couldn't believe it when he was arrested. The alleged events happened on a Friday night and he didn't know anything about them until police turned up at his flat on Monday morning.
''It was totally out of the blue and he really thought the officers were joking.''
Despite being cleared, Mr Jones has still not returned to work.
The friend said: "Adrian has been suspended for nine months on full pay.
"All he wants to do is get back to work, but he should never have been suspended anyway because he didn't do anything wrong."
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that Mr Jones and the woman had spent the night drinking in Walsall town centre before the assault was supposed to have taken place.
She alleged that Mr Jones tried to rape her, but a jury took just 35 minutes to acquit him.
The friend added: "His girlfriend has stood by him throughout this, but this nearly split them up.
''They've both been to the doctors with stress-related complaints.
"And it has split him up from some of his family. He's been unable to see one of his children while all this has been going on.
"At this moment in time he is both relieved and angry. Relieved it's over and angry that he had to go through all of this in the first place.
"All he wants to do is to get back to the fire service and start again.
''But he's worried that mud will stick and that this may be more difficult than it should be."
Last night, Mr Jones declined to comment on the court case.
A spokesman for West Midlands Fire Service said: "We are aware of the outcome of the court proceedings involving Firefighter Adrian Jones.
"As personnel issues are confidential between the organisation and its employees, it would be inappropriate to offer any further comment at this time."
Link: http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2008/07/05/fireman-s-career-is-wrecked-by-false-rape-case-66331-21274611/
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6 comments:
Well, at least he's getting paid while suspended. Better than no money coming in, or getting outright fired.
As someone who was falsely a cussed of rape, almost beaten to death, and then the girl was never even charged by the police, I'm very optomistic about this site that at least starts to "break the silence".
Thank you sir!!
I'm very thankfull for you're efforts here at "False rape Society", to give this issue a voice.
It will be a massive human effort to track, and file, these cases, but if you put out a donation basket, i would most definitely help (at least a little) to defray some of the research costs.
Norm,
The problem is, that he has been found innocent of any wrongdoing, yet is still being punished.
Scott, I'm sorry you had to go through that. Welcome to the site.
I have a friend in the UK (also a firefighter)who was falsely accused of rape, went to trial and to our horror, was convicted. He will now spend 2 years in prison and has to register on the sex offenders register for life. I am devestated and don't know what to do.
If that had happened in the states he'd probably be looking at twenty years, followed by life on a database with severe residency restrictions. Every week we read about another man being let out of prison after twenty-five years for a rape that he didn't commit.
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