Saudi millionaire cleared of rape after claiming he accidentally penetrated teenager

Saudi millionaire Ehsan Abdulaziz has been cleared of rape charges after claiming he accidentally penetrated the victim when he fell on her. The property developer was accused of raping the 18-year-old girl while she was sleeping on a couch at his apartment in Maida Vale, west London.

During the trial at Southwark Crown Court, Abdulaziz explained that he tripped and fell on the girl.

On 7 August, 2014, the victim and her 24-year-old female friend met the millionaire at the Circ le Soir club and returned with him to his apartment where the other girl had sex with him. The teenager slept on a sofa but woke up to find Abdulaziz allegedly trying to force himself on her.

"She woke up with the defendant kissing her and his penis in her vagina," prosecutor Jonathan Davies told the Southwark Crown Court.

"She said: 'What are you doing?' and he said 'It's fine', indicating that her friend was asleep. She got up to find her friend, tried to wake her but couldn't, she then tried to get out of the flat as quickly as she could."

Abdulaziz, however, claimed he had come to offer her a T-shirt and to ask if she needed a cab to go home. He added that the girl was trying to seduce him and had pulled him on top of her. "I'm fragile, I fell down but nothing ever happened, between me and this girl nothing ever happened," he insisted.

The 46-year-old Saudi told the court that traces of his semen might have been found on the girl because he had just had sex with her friend. Abdulaziz pointed out that the incident was not intentional and happened when he tripped and somehow penetrated the teenager.

During the trial, judge Martin Griffiths permitted the rare step of allowing 20 minutes of Abdulaziz's evidence to be heard in private. The jury announced its not-guilty verdict after 30 minutes of deliberations.