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Anne Keothavong’s husband has been cleared of rape after the tennis star snapped in court, calling claims of sexual assault by an American woman “a sick joke”.
Andrew Bretherton, 49, was accused of raping the woman, whose name cannot be identified for legal reasons, at her apartment in Kensington, south-west London, in May 2008.
The woman told police that she thought she would die during the alleged attack.
Bretherton, who married the former British No. 1 tennis star in 2015, has denied two charges of rape.
Andrew Bretherton, 49, pictured outside London’s Inner Crown Court, was accused of raping the woman, whose name cannot be identified for legal reasons, at her apartment in Kensington, south-west London, in May of 2008.
Bretherton, pictured with his wife, former British tennis number one Anne Keothavong, right, denied the allegation.
He stated that the alleged victim was consenting.
During cross-examination, his lawyer, Sarah Forshaw KC, told the jury that there were too many inconsistencies in the alleged victim’s account to be sure that he was telling the truth.
He also said that the alleged victim did not ask him to stop at all during the first alleged attack, although the alleged victim says that he had his head face down on the pillow and was unable to breathe.
The woman first filed a formal police complaint naming Bretherton in 2018, more than 10 years after the alleged rape.
Ms Forshaw KC said “common sense” should make jurors wonder why she didn’t immediately report it to the police.
The court heard that she told a rape crisis center in 2008 that she had agreed to take off her pants, but 10 years later she told police that he had ripped them off.
It is also claimed that she had changed her version of saying that he had slapped her buttock to a thigh slap because she “knew” that crisis center reports would show the wound was on her thigh.
She reported the alleged attack in October 2008, but hesitated to press charges three times before agreeing to be interviewed by police the following month.
The court was also told that at one point she said she felt “intimidated” into pressing charges by police officers, and that police “interrogated” her and “made her feel like the perpetrator.”
Earlier in the trial, jurors were told the alleged victim became interested in taking the case further after reading about a civil lawsuit Harvey Weinstein was facing in Britain.
She denied it, saying that she had already spent three years investigating how she could pursue the case.
The November 2017 article on entertainment site Deadline Hollywood said £300,000 could be paid to a woman who had sued Weinstein.
Bretherton’s alleged victim contacted Jill Greenfield, a partner at London law firm Fieldfisher, about how her own case stood and asked her advice.
They had talks, but Ms. Greenfield told her that a civil suit was unlikely to be successful because there was insufficient evidence, the jury was told.
The court was also told that he initially refused to give police access to certain material, such as the records of his therapists.
Ms Forshaw KC told the jury: ‘You will want to consider whether she is a person who has the ability to dramatize a perfectly ordinary accident.
Earlier in the trial, jurors were told the alleged victim became interested in taking the case further after reading about a civil lawsuit Harvey Weinstein was facing in Britain.
“There is no room for her to be the kind of person who is quite outlandish and dramatic and has rewritten things to be more sensational.
“Of course there are stereotypes, but if this had happened the way she says it did, you’d say ‘get out of my way, you just raped me.’
‘She said ‘that’s not something to start with someone (before you left your apartment)’.
‘What you do before you spend five days sitting on it, because you’re actually quite a dramatic and flamboyant person, is tell someone and go to the police and say you’ve been raped. Five days pass before she says that.
I know about stereotypes, but if you think someone is trying to murder you, you scream like there’s no tomorrow.
“He has come to be convinced of his own truth and his own interpretation of what really happened, which is much less sensational, much less dramatic and completely shameful.”
Brian O’Neill KC, prosecutor, said the alleged victim had given a “broadly consistent” account of the alleged attack.
He told the jury: ‘Why you waited so long before you made a formal complaint to the police is something you will want to consider carefully.
‘Is it or could it be because she is anxious to get a criminal conviction before filing a civil suit for damages, or can you be sure this is simply a case she finally got the nerve to file?
‘Her repeated refusal to give police access to various materials, such as her therapists’ records, could be because she had something to hide, as the defense suggested, or it could be nothing more than a legitimate desire to protect her privacy and prevent strangers from looking through irrelevant personal material.
‘This case is not easy and cases like this never are. The themes are classic for a jury, since they are the word of one person against another without witnesses to support the story.
That doesn’t mean he’s not telling the truth. That doesn’t mean you can’t convict on his word and his word alone.
If you are sure that she has told you the truth, it would be your duty to condemn her.
‘Perhaps it is a sad duty to have to perform, since you have heard that he is a good and decent man.
‘That night fourteen and a half years ago he was not being the simple and boring lover, nor the kind and respectful man as mentioned in another character reference, nor the generous lover in the bedroom as described by his wife.
That night, in his bedroom, something changed in Andrew Bretherton. He raped the victim.