An innocent university student was accused of rape andsubjected to a year-long court ordeal after a woman he had sex with claimed she thought she had been sleeping with a different man.
Sam Obeghe, 24, was having intercourse with the 21-year-old shop assistant at his own apartment at the end of a drunken night out – only to stop when she unexpectedly cried the name of his friend Zack Garrigan.
As he did so, the woman – who had earlier been drunkenly romping with 22-year-old Mr Garrigan in the flat – ran her fingers through Mr Obeghe hair and realised she was with the wrong man.
She stormed out in hysterics, police were alerted and within three hours of the sexual encounter Mr Obeghe, an economics student atUniversity of Salford, Greater Manchester, was arrested in his pyjamas.
He was ordered to face court and endured a 17-month wait before he faced a trial. On Wednesday Mr Obeghe, now 26, fought back tears as the jury of five women and seven men at Bolton Crown Court unanimously acquitted him of rape after just 27 minutes deliberation.
Mr Obeghe’s health suffered during the “traumatic” ordeal and he found it difficult to talk about the “shameful” allegation with his friends and family.
His solicitor, Ian Robinson, said: “For the past 17 months, Mr Obeghe has been accused of a most serious allegation.
“For a young man of good character, he has found the whole process difficult to deal with.
“This has been a most traumatic ordeal for him. His health has suffered, his university studies have been affected and given the shameful nature of the allegation, he has been unable to confide in his close friends and family.”
During the trial the woman said the bedroom was “pitch black” and she couldn’t see anything, despite Nigerian-born Mr Obeghe being of different ethnicity to Mr Garrigan who is white.
The two men also have different features and a different voice. The incident occurred on December 5, 2014 when the woman – known as Miss X – had got drunk during a night out with a friend in Bolton town centre.
The two women met Mr Obeghe and Mr Garrigan in the Vogue bar and in the early hours of the morning the four of them, plus another man went to the student’s flat in the Heaton area of the town.
Mr Obeghe – who had not been drinking – gave the party a lift in his BMW but once they got back Miss X and Mr Garrigan began kissing headed into the accused man’s bedroom for sex.
The woman said she and Mr Garrigan did not have intercourse and she fell asleep whilst he went into the lounge to try to find some Viagra.
But she told the court she was subsequently woken by a man she thought was Mr Garrigan in the bed and they began having sex.
She said: “I was saying Zack’s name because I thought it was him I was having sex with. The person hugging and kissing me didn’t feel any different.
“I thought this was Zack, I called his name four or five times. It went on for a couple of minutes until I put my hands through his hair and realised it was not Zack but was Sam. I was screaming ‘what are you doing’ he ran out of the room.
“I was embarrassed and ran out. Zack was asking what was wrong, I was just saying that I needed to get out.”
The woman later told her mother who called police. Mr Obeghe who at the time worked for a fashion brand said he had met the woman whilst helping Mr Garrigan celebrate his birthday and he and agreed to let them and the other friends go back to his flat at 5am.
“I could tell she was drunk – her and Zack were the same,” he said. “Music was playing and they were kissing and then went into my bedroom.
“I sat there thinking ‘what have I done’ bringing them back here because I had work the next day. I saw Zack coming out, first naked and I was saying ‘come on I need to go to bed.’
“I asked him ‘are you guys leaving?’ but he was not really paying attention to what I was saying and I said ‘I’m going to go and get her out.’
“I walked into the bedroom sat on the bed and started nudging the woman saying ‘go and meet Zack in the living room’. At first I lay there thinking ‘finally I can go to bed’ but she grabbed me.
“I was just thinking ‘I didn’t really want to have sex with her’ but I’m a human being and if you get touched like that you have a motivation to move on. I figured she was probably very drunk but she grabbed me saying ‘come on Zack’ then I realised she’s thinking I’m Zack so I jumped off the bed and jumped out of the room.
“I went into the living room and told Zack: ‘Man you will not believe what she’s just done’. Zack was sort of laughing and then I saw her storming out and she was screaming. I was in shock. I didn’t climb on top of her and kiss her.”
After the not guilty verdict, Mr Obeghe was too upset to comment.
His lawyer Sarah Johnson said: “We are not suggesting this is a wicked woman telling a wicked pack of lies – but she couldn’t remember everything that happened in that bedroom.
“She’s not someone you can say is accurate and reliable. She said the room was pitch black and she couldn’t see anything, despite the defendant being of a different ethnicity, having different features and a different voice.
“It was only when putting her hand through his hair she put her head back and it’s that movement of her head that allows her to see that it’s Sam and not Zack.”
Nick Ross, one of the partners at Russell & Russell who helped Mr Obeghe with his defence, said: “It is easy, to say with the benefit of hindsight, that the CPS got it wrong, but of course in terms of somebody like Sam, it’s a good example of this increasing call for the law to revert to the old law where suspects have some entitlement to anonymity because it’s so humiliating and it’s such a stigma and it’s a hell-of-an ordeal for decent individuals who are wrongly accused. He’s a thoroughly decent, respectable and hardworking young man who found himself wan, UKting to have some youthful experience, like many young people, and not expecting to face a Crown Court at the end of it.”
Telegraph, UK
