The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) threw out the rape case of Jade MaCroson after she claimed she suffered from sexomania. As a result, the Crown Prosecution Service does not feel it will be able to convict the offender. But Jade has challenged the decision and spent months reopening her case.
The Crown Prosecution Service admitted it had made a mistake by not prosecuting and apologized unconditionally to Jade. But what was wrong with all this?
It was a night in the spring of 2017 when Jade found herself semi-naked on the couch. Her necklace was broken and scattered on the floor.
24-year-old Jade realizes with horror that she has been raped in her sleep. Three years after the incident, and just days before the trial of the man she accused of raping, Crown prosecution lawyers called her to an emergency meeting at a south London police station.
His alleged rape case was being dismissed. The prosecution counsel explained that two experts had given their opinion in their case. They said it was possible that Jade was suffering from ‘sex mania’ as the details of the case showed that Jade was awake at the time of the rape and that it involved her consent.
Sexsomnia is a sleep disorder. People suffering from this disease have sex while sleeping.
Under the law of England and Wales, sex or intercourse while a person is asleep cannot be construed as consensual. However, the law also states that it is not rape if there is “reasonable evidence” of consensual sex between two people.
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Jade had never heard of a term like sex mania before. He said, “I don’t know where she came from.” It was very strange.
“I’ve had two long-term relationships in the last 13 years and never have.”
The dismissal of Jade’s case by the Crown Prosecution Service meant that his case would now be closed and the accused officially free.
The first time Jade was asked about her dream, she went to the police station to give a formal statement.
In response to a police officer’s question, she said that she was always a deep sleeper and that she had sleepwalked several times when she was a teenager. It was an unnecessary phrase uttered by her and she had forgotten it before her case was dismissed.
It was Jade’s best friend, Belle Schreck, who initially reported the family to the police.
His friend Bell remembers Jade’s voice on the telephone line that day. “It was also unheard of,” she says. She was distraught and crying, she said, “I feel like I have been raped.
When did the rape case happen?
That evening, the two friends went to a bar in South London, drank wine and put on make-up together, and left hand in hand.
It was a good evening for them, with food and drink and lots of talking, but when it was almost time to go. So Bell called a taxi while Jade decided to go to a friend’s flat with some people for a last drink.
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At about two o’clock, while people around her were still talking, she laid down on a sofa in the living room, covered herself with a blanket and fell asleep, fully clothed at that time.
When she opened her eyes at five o’clock in the night, her pants and underwear were off, and she found a man also lying on the couch where she was lying.
I asked him what happened? What have you done to me? And he answered something strange but he said that ‘I thought you were awake.’
‘And he immediately left and left the door open, I picked up my phone and immediately started calling Bell.’
After Bell called the police, two male police officers arrived and took Jade straight away for forensic tests. A medical examination of the vagina proved that they had sex with him and the semen samples found on the sofa were also of the man.
The suspect had no comment when initially questioned by police. The Crown Prosecution decided to file a formal charge of rape against him, but the suspect pleaded not guilty and a trial date was set.
But the matter never went beyond that.
Jade was determined to prove that the Crown Prosecution was wrong to dismiss her case. But they had limited time to appeal.
He requested to provide all the evidence including police interviews, medical examination reports, witness statements and expert reports and started scrutinizing it.
What they read, they were shocked to learn, was that the views of sleep experts were given so much importance in this particular case.
Neither expert met him personally but his opinion was given enough weight to dismiss his case.
The first sleep specialist, instructed by the defense, concluded that there was a ‘strong possibility’ that Jade had suffered from sexsomnia, and said that ‘her behavior was consistent with that of someone who It can be of one who is engaged in sexual activity with open eyes and expresses pleasure.’
In response, the Crown Prosecution itself hired a sleep expert. He concluded that ‘a long history of sleepwalking, constant sleep talking or any such symptoms in a family member are enough to make someone suffer from sexsomnia.’
Jade was at a loss for words. ‘I don’t understand how this can be a case of sexomania,’ she says. Why did this happen when I refused to have sex with someone who wanted to have sex with me?
Jade decided to consult a sleep specialist in person. And in this regard contacted Dr. Irshad Ibrahim at London Sleep Center. Dr. Irshad Ibrahim also has experience in giving expert opinions on rape cases.
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Jade’s case was the first that came before him. And in which the complainant was declared to be a victim of sexomania. In all other rape cases that came before him, the defendant claimed that he had suffered an attack of sexomania.
Dr. Ibrahim explained that scientific research is limited. And there is no definitive way to diagnose sexsomnia. But he said people who have the disease are usually men and have a history of sexual behavior in their sleep.
After that, Jade underwent a sleep test. This is called polysomnography. In which the waves conveying the message to the brain, the breathing and the movement of the body in the state of sleep are monitored and examined.
The test showed that she snores during sleep. And he has a mild case of sleep apnea, a common condition in deep sleep that involves stopping and pacing of breathing during sleep. According to Dr. Ibrahim, these two factors could be the possible triggers of sexomania. So they couldn’t rule out that he might have had a sudden attack of sexomania.
Dr. Ibrahim said that it was a very important question to answer in clear words whether it was responsible or not, it is not possible to say.
Jade still believes she doesn’t have sexsomnia, but she’s puzzled as to why sleep experts don’t rule it out.
He approached a lawyer to learn more about how the courts view the disease in favor of defense counsel.
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Barrister Alison Summers defended such rape cases. Where the accused men had claimed that they were suffering from sexomania.
He told Jade that sleep experts can never clearly diagnose someone with this condition. But saying ‘it’s possible’ may be enough for a jury to decide not to convict the offender.
“Do I think that as a result, some guilty people get off or get acquitted?” he said. Yes, I think so, but then again I would like to do the same because instead we are convicting people of serious crimes who are not really guilty.’
‘All I can say is that you hope that the criminal trial process will enable the real cases to be weeded out from the less real cases.’
According to CPS rules, sexsomnia and other sleepwalking defenses should always be vigorously challenged in court.
But Jade’s case never went to court. Along with his research, he filed an appeal in court for his case.
The Chief Crown Prosecutor, who is independent from the CPS, the agency that disposes of the case. Re-examined all the evidence. They concluded that the case should have been heard in court and that the sleep experts’ opinions, and the defendant’s testimony, should have been challenged in court.
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He said the jury was more likely to convict the defendant. He said it was necessary for the CPS to take the case to court.
He wrote to Jade: ‘I can’t imagine what you have been through and what you must have felt. I have seen the devastating effects on you during the revision of this case.
“I apologize to you on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) even though I know it will not be enough for you.”
The admission for Jade was that the case should be brought before a jury and that CPS could not present the case again.
The suspect in the case was not officially found guilty, which means he cannot be tried without new evidence.
“There is no hope of justice in what happened to me,” says Jade, but she hopes CPS doesn’t put others through similar ordeals.
“The very system designed to protect them has disgraced them and they (CPS) have clearly admitted they made a mistake,” she says.
According to UK Home Office figures from 2021 to September, police prosecuted the suspect in only 1.3 per cent of rape cases in England and Wales.
The CPS says: ‘They are committed to improving every aspect of their service to serious and life-changing crimes such as rape and are working with the police to improve the way they deal with them. can go.’
Jade is now suing CPS for damages.
Source: BBC
