Exclusive:Man found not guilty of raping woman in alleyway in Portsmouth city centre
The man had been on trial
A man has been found not guilty of raping a woman in an alleyway in Portsmouth city centre.
Jurors at Portsmouth Crown Court cleared Kai Dore, 25 of Kiln Drive, Hambrook in Chichester, of two counts of rape, and one count of attempted rape. He had denied the offences.
During the trial, the jury heard from a woman who said she was raped by Dore in February this year near Guildhall Square. The woman reported it to police and had a medical examination in the days following the incident.
Appearing in court behind a screen in the witness box, the woman was cross-examined by Dore’s solicitor, Russell Pyne, who said the complainant was drunk and had also consented to the encounter.
He said: “You said in your police interview that you did not know the man’s name. You obviously had quite a bit to drink that afternoon - vodka and cola, and Buzzballs as well, and another type of drink that you couldn’t remember.
“You were asked quite a lot about what you do or don’t remember. You gave a description of how sober you thought the defendant was, but said to police that you were ‘10/10 drunk’.
“Is it right to say there was some flirtatiousness throughout the day between you two? You told police about him taking hold of both your arms and dragged you forcefully. There’s CCTV footage that the jury will see later in this trial - my suggestion is that you’re not dragged; in fact, you’re in front of him as you walk into the alleyway.”
The woman, who fought back tears as she gave her account in the witness box, told the jury that she tried to push Dore off of her, but to no avail.
She said: “Regardless of anything, it doesn’t make it okay for him to do what he did. I did not consent.
“None of it was consenual. I had only met him that day - just because a woman is with a man, does not make it okay for that man to put his hands on her. Flirting is not a yes - no means no, and I said that to him while I kept pushing him off me.
“It was all a bit of a blur, I can’t describe it properly. But I did not want it.”
Dore was found not guilty of all the charges and is now a free man.