Alexander Economou, a shipping tycoon’s son, has been charged with harassing the father of the 23-year-old woman who committed suicide after falsely accusing him of rape.
It’s a sad and long story, but Eleanor de Freitas accused Alexander, 35, of raping her shortly before Christmas a few years back.
Anyway, after Alexander heard claims that he’d assaulted Eleanor, he went to Chelsea police station, where he was then arrested on suspicion of rape. The case didn’t reach court, but Alexander launched a private prosecution against Eleanor – costing £10,000 – for making false claims.
This case was picked up by the Crown Prosecution Service and a trial date set, but three days before she was due to stand trial for making a false allegation in April 2014, Eleanor committed suicide. She had previously been sectioned for bipolar disorder and her father David de Freitas claimed that the CPS had failed his daughter.
David campaigned for an inquiry into the CPS with regards to the two cases his daughter had been involved in – first as a witness, then as a suspect – but Alexander said that this campaign was full of libel against him. So he sued David for libel, seeking damages of up to £200,000.
However, now the CPS has charged Alexander with harassing David.
The charge claims he: ‘delivered or caused to be delivered a letter dated November 6, 2014, to the home of David de Freitas’; that he acquired the domain name eleanordefreitas.com – which re-routes to alexandereconomou.com which displays a statement signed from Alexander where he explains his side of the story; and allegedly ‘uploaded various recordings and comments onto websites such as YouTube, vimeo.com and liveleaks.com.’
He is due to stand trial on 11 January 2016 before Westminster Magistrates Court, reports The Telegraph.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.