Jack Tweed, widower of reality television star Jade Goody, walked free from court today after he was found not guilty of raping a student.
A jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court, in east London, took less than 30 minutes to find the 22-year-old club promoter not guilty of two counts of raping the woman at his home on September 4th last year.
His friend, Anthony Davis (26), a property developer, was also cleared of one count of raping the girl, who was 19 at the time of the incident.
Tweed, who married Big Brother star Goody (27), shortly before she lost her battle against cervical cancer in March 2009, and Davis, of Stradbroke Drive, Chigwell, Essex, both denied rape.
There were roars of delight from a packed public gallery as the not guilty verdicts were returned.
The allegations were “scurrilous and completely groundless”, Tweed said as he left court.
The jury heard the young woman, now a 20-year-old student from Hertfordshire, went with friends to Tweed’s house in Brandesbury Square, Repton Park, Woodford Green, east London, after a night out at the Embassy Club in Mayfair.
Her first contact with Tweed was when he started kissing the back of her neck. She initially tried to laugh it off but Tweed soon became “more heavy-handed”, the court heard.
She accused Tweed of raping her by the window sill in his room, but admitted that she went along with it at first kissing him back. As the situation developed, she said she was “frozen with fear” and her body went into “complete lockdown”.
The jury was told the woman “allowed” Tweed to have sex with her and did not protest. Tweed then had sex with her for a second time on the bed and Davis joined in, the court heard.
Goody, who shot to fame after appearing on the Big Brother television show, died in March last year after a high profile fight against cancer. She and Tweed married after doctors told her the cancer had spread and was terminal.
Tweed was jailed for 12 weeks in April last year for assaulting a taxi driver.