Tears as teen is cleared of rape
CHEERS erupted from the public gallery at Doncaster Crown Court after a teenager was cleared of rape charges.
Dean Bunn, aged 19, broke down in tears and had to be helped from the dock when he was overcome by emotion at the end of his six-month ordeal.
Several of the defendant's family and friends also wept when the jury delivered their unanimous 'not guilty' verdicts on two counts of rape, after retiring for little more than an hour.
Mr Bunn, of Pickering Road, Bentley, was first arrested in early July when he went to a police station after seeing a cordon thrown around the alleged crime scene next to Bentley railway bridge.
He told police he had had sex with a woman in bushes at the bottom of the bridge embankment, but said she instigated it – something he maintained throughout two trials.
The first trial, last November, had to be aborted when the court ran out of time because one of the jurors had a pre-booked holiday in Australia.
A second trial, in which the 36-year-old woman who had cried rape gave evidence by video link for a second time, concluded yesterday with Mr Bunn's acquittal.
In his defence he said he had been walking from a pub at Carcroft to town when he met the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on Bentley Road near the bridge. He had never met her before.
She asked him for a cigarette and then asked him if he was "hoping to pull" that night before saying "we can always go down there", indicating the embankment.
He told the jury that sex took place at the bottom of the embankment.
"At no stage did I think she was uncomfortable," he said.
Mr Bunn said he was shocked the next day when he saw the police cordon. He went to a police station and said he had sex at that location but denied he had raped the woman.
The defendant, who had been held in custody since his arrest, and his family declined to comment after the trial except to say: "It was the right verdict."
READ MORE
Main news index
Your letters
Features
South Yorkshire's environmental news
Kids Zone
More business news
More Rotherham news
More Doncaster news
More Barnsley news
Latest sport
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
