The Grammy-nominated British rapper Slowthai, whose real name is Tyron Frampton, has been found not guilty of raping two women at a house party after the musician’s gig at the Bullingdon, in Oxford, in September 2021.
Frampton, 29, burst into tears at Oxford crown court on Monday as the jurors cleared him and his co-accused, Alex Blake-Walker, 27, of three joint counts of rape, after 10 hours of deliberation. Blake-Walker was also found not guilty of one count of sexual assault.
Judge Pringle told the court the case had “raised a lot of high feelings”.
Frampton’s wife, the pop singer Anne-Marie, sighed as the verdicts were read out. Frampton declined to comment on the verdicts as the pair left the court.
Frampton and Blake-Walker had previously denied all the charges, and said the two women consented to all sexual activity.
In closing arguments last week, the prosecutor Heather Stangoe told the jury they should not try to be “Wagatha Christies” and seek to investigate the case themselves, but to decide based on the evidence they had heard. “This is not CSI, this is not an American drama – this is a case about real people and things that happened in real life.”
Defending Frampton, Patrick Gibbs KC had said there were a dozen “problems” with the prosecution’s case, and defended his client as not being “everybody’s stereotype of a rapper”, but a “thoughtful”, “modest” man who “throws himself, sometimes recklessly, into life”.
He told the jury that even if Frampton was acquitted, “he’ll be cancelled for the rest of time”.
Defending Blake-Walker, Sheryl Nwosu said in her closing remarks that the evidence for the prosecution “doesn’t fit with Mr Blake-Walker and his behaviour on the night” and that he believed the plaintiff was “fully consenting”.
Judge Pringle said at the time the case was a “question of consent” and that there was “no stereotype for a perpetrator or victim of rape”.
Stangoe said Frampton and Blake-Walker had met a group of women before the show and given them VIP tickets, and that the women later met him on the tour bus. After Frampton and Blake-Walker went to one of the women’s houses, Stangoe said Frampton made two rules: “No phones and no boys.”
It was alleged that Blake-Walker raped the first woman at the encouragement of Frampton, who was accused of raping the second woman twice at the encouragement of Blake-Walker. Blake-Walker was also accused of sexually assaulting the second woman.
Stangoe said the women were “isolated from their friends”, then raped and sexually assaulted on the roof while the two men joked, gave each other high-fives, “discussed ‘tag teams’ and contemplated swapping the girls”. She said that when the women’s friends realised what was happening and intervened, Frampton ran away.
Frampton told the court sexual activity had taken place between him and the second woman but said she had given consent. He said that he and Blake-Walker had “fist-bumped” but denied that it was a gesture of encouragement.
After the two women reported the incident to the police that night, Frampton and Blake-Walker were arrested and interviewed. The allegations came to light in May 2023 when Frampton appeared in Oxfordshire magistrates court via video link on two charges of rape.
The musician, whose second album, Tyron, reached No 1 in 2021, was later removed from the lineups of Glastonbury and the Reading and Leeds festivals.
Source: theguardian.com
