It's 2015 and a Saudi millionaire, in a UK court, has escaped being found guilty of rape by using an 'I tripped and fell' defence.
Ehsan Abdulaziz, 46, had been drinking at Cirque Le Soir, a club in London, when he invited two women - aged 18 and 24 - over to his £1,000-a-night table. After drinking, he invited the two girls over to his flat in Maida Vale. He then had sex with the 24-year-old, whom he already knew. The complainant fell asleep on a sofa, and alleged that she awoke in the small hours of the morning to find Mr Abdulaziz on top of her, forcing himself inside her.
He claimed that she had put her hands on his head and pulled him towards her, and that: 'I’m fragile, I fell down but nothing ever happened, between me and this girl nothing ever happened.'
The property developer said that he'd merely gone to ask the 18-year-old if she'd wanted a T-shirt to sleep in or for him to order her a taxi home. At this point, she pulled him towards her and placed his hand between her legs.
As for the semen and DNA of his that was found inside her vagina? The jury found it to be true, reports the Daily Mail, that either he had semen on his hands following the prior sex or that his penis had been left poking out of his clothes after the first encounter at the time he fell on the teenager.
When he was arrested, Mr Abdulaziz told police: 'she'll have to prove it.'
During the trial, when asked if he's in the habit of taking a girl home after a night out, he told his defence lawyer: 'It never happened in my life, I always respect ladies and I have a sister myself.' His defence lawyer successfully argued that the complainant had lied because she was embarrassed that Mr Abdulaziz had not wanted to have sex with her.
As part of the trial, held at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Richard Griffith allowed Mr Abdulaziz to give 20 minutes' worth of evidence in private. After 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Mr Abdulaziz not guilty of one count of rape.
So, there you have it. The 'tripped and fell' defence for allegedly raping a woman works in a British court of law in 2015, and the evidence that seems to have got the defendant off is under wraps.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.