{"id":243678,"date":"2023-12-13T14:05:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T14:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=243678"},"modified":"2023-12-13T14:05:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T14:05:49","slug":"egyptian-asylum-seeker-is-found-not-guilty-of-rape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/egyptian-asylum-seeker-is-found-not-guilty-of-rape\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian asylum seeker is found not guilty of rape"},"content":{"rendered":"
An asylum seeker has been found not guilty of raping a stranger in a seaside park six weeks after arriving in the UK from France.<\/p>\n
Jurors deliberated for more than seven and a half hours over three days before clearing Saad Gomaa, a married father-of-one originally from Egypt, of attacking the woman on June 9.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors claimed Gomaa’s alleged victim was too drunk to give consent when she met him in Tower Gardens in Skegness, Lincolnshire.<\/p>\n
But Gomaa, 34, claimed the woman did not appear drunk, had consented, and accused her of reporting the rape in a 999 call because she felt ‘cheap’ after having sex in public.<\/p>\n
The trial heard last week that Gomaa arrived in Britain from France on April 28, after British authorities saved a boat carrying him and 70 other migrants.<\/p>\n
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Jurors deliberated for more than seven and a half hours over three days before clearing Saad Gomaa, a married father-of-one originally from Egypt<\/p>\n
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Prosecutors claimed Gomaa’s alleged victim was too drunk to give consent when she met him in Tower Gardens (pictured) in Skegness, Lincolnshire<\/p>\n
He told jurors he spent two days in Dover before being driven by car to Skegness in the company of eight other migrants.<\/p>\n
During the trial, jurors were told that while Gomaa had submitted an asylum claim, his immigration status was irrelevant to their consideration of the case.<\/p>\n
Defence barrister Karen Walton said Gomaa, who was living at a hotel less than half a mile from the park, had a reasonable belief that the woman was not incapacitated through drink.<\/p>\n
The defendant has been in custody since his arrest at a Skegness bar shortly after the incident, but was told he was free to go by Judge James House KC on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The judge said: ‘Mr Gomaa, you are discharged. Once the paperwork has been dealt with, that is the end of the matter.<\/p>\n
‘What happens with any other immigration matters after this is not a matter for the court.’<\/p>\n