Jack Tweed, the widower of the reality television star Jade Goody, was cleared yesterday of raping a teenage student six months after his wife died of cancer.
Mr Tweed and a friend were accused of attacking the 19-year-old after meeting her at a nightclub in Mayfair.
The jury took less than half an hour to clear both men of rape after hearing that the woman had been excited by being in a celebrity’s home and had searched for pictures of Goody, a star of Channel 4’s Big Brother.
Mr Tweed, 22, has been embroiled in a series of lurid stories over the past year about his sex life and the financial legacy of his wife.
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He and Anthony Davis, 26, had met the student and three female friends at the Embassy club in West London in September last year. Mr Tweed’s group included unnamed cast members from BBC 1’s EastEnders and a former Big Brother contestant.
Linda Strudwick, for the prosecution, told Snaresbrook Crown Court that the attack occurred after some of the group returned to Mr Tweed’s flat in Woodford Green, Essex. It was alleged that Mr Davis pushed the student into a bedroom and called Mr Tweed to join him.
Ms Strudwick said that the woman was shy, sober and “made it plain to both defendants that she was not interested in them sexually”. But Mr Tweed said the woman had had consensual sex with him. “She was flirty towards me and very friendly,” he said.
“We looked at each other and just started kissing. We made eye contact. I may have made the first move. She was kissing me back and had her arms round me, running her hand through my hair and down my back.”
He said he had no idea that Mr Davis was in the room spying on them until his friend knelt on the bed.
Mr Davis said that he had walked into Mr Tweed’s bedroom and “enjoyed” seeing the pair have sex and joined in because she did not protest.
He told police: “She didn’t say stop. She didn’t say anything to suggest she didn’t want it to happen. She didn’t say anything at all.”
Sean Minihan, defending Mr Davis, said the woman had “cried rape” because she was ashamed of her threesome. He told the jury she had consented to sex but “sorely regretted it” when her friends called her a “little slut”.
The student denied making up the rape accusations because she was ashamed of sleeping with two men or that she had been “excited” to be in a celebrity’s house. She insisted that she had not gone from room to room looking for photographs of Goody.
After being cleared Mr Tweed, a nightclub promoter, issued a statement which read: “I’m relieved that the jury have taken a matter of minutes to see through these scurrilous and completely groundless allegations. I now want to put the last eight months behind me.”
He added: “I’d first like to thank my family and friends and everyone who stood by me.”
Mr Tweed married Goody in February last year in a “fairytale” ceremony, fulfilling her dying wish because she had terminal cervical cancer.
The groom, who was on a curfew after being released part-way through an 18-month prison sentence for assaulting a 16-year-old boy, was given special permission to spend his wedding night with Goody.
Goody died on Mothering Sunday. A month later Mr Tweed was jailed for 12 weeks for assaulting a taxi driver after a night out in May 2008.
After his release Mr Tweed was pictured partying at nightclubs and a month before the rape allegation three girls told a newspaper of an eight-hour drunken “sex party” at his home.
Trial by media - is it just?
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