NOT GUILTY: Fireman 100% Innocent Of 'Rape' That Never Was

Carnival Threesome: Edwards 

A hunky fireman model was cleared yesterday of raping a drunken privately-educated young graduate in the entrance of a £3.6m house during the Notting Hill Carnival.

Kristian Edwards, 37, who has posed for Firemen Models - an agency specialising in genuine firefighters - claimed the 23 year-old scholar, currently studying for her Masters, consented to a threesome with himself and a mystery black man.

The DNA of a second man was found during tests on the young woman, which supported his evidence and he was unanimously acquitted by the jury in less than thirty-five minutes.

Edwards, of Nevendon Mews, Basildon, Essex, who is based at Poplar Fire Station, always denied raping the woman, who he had just met in a pub, on August 25, 2014.

Harrow Crown Court heard the student and her friend had been drinking all day when they arrived at the ticket-only party at the Prince Bonaparte pub.

Edwards told police: "They were being very flirty with a black guy and I thought: 'Okay, I may have a chance with these two.'

"They started touching my arms and playing with my muscles and kept undoing my top and putting their hands down there."

The muscular six-footer revealed to the jury it was the second time in a few years he had picked-up a woman at the carnival and had sex in the street.

His bio on the modelling website reads: 'Kristian is a charming hunk from the south east. He loves carnival (from Notting Hill to Rio), his pets and family.

"The cutest animal he has rescued was a little hamster stuck in her cage, from a smoke-filled house.'

Pose: Fireman Hunk

The young woman told the jury she had little recollection of events in the pub that night. "It was Carnival. We drank all day, every kind of alcohol under the sun."

She says she was grabbed from behind after leaving the pub at around 9pm: "He was forcing me down and his hands were pulling my tights.

"His arm was around my waist, pulling me towards him while I was bent over. I don't know why I didn't make more effort to get away at the time, I was so drunk."

The pub's CCTV shows the woman kissing Edwards, but she repeatedly replied: "I don't know" and: "I can't remember," when questioned about the night's events.

She had consumed rum, vodka, wine, tequila and sangria that day and prosecutor Mr. James Dawson told the jury: "She had so much she couldn't have agreed to have sex in the street.

"He pulled her tights and knickers down and she was pushed to the ground. She did not even know who raped her and was in a very poor way."

By the morning her mother had reported her missing to the police and the first thing she told her friend was: "I was raped last night."

She did not remember unzipping Edwards' sleeveless gilet to expose his tattooed bare torso and said: "He seemed quite proud of his fingerprint tattoo or maybe it was an excuse to take off his gilet.

"There are huge parts of the night I don't remember, which makes me think our drinks may have been spiked or whatever."

Police tests did not show any evidence of drugs in the complainant's system.

She agreed the pub's CCTV showed her throwing her arms around and "flirting" with Edwards, who claims he also enjoyed a three way kiss with her and her friend.

However, the young woman insisted she did not agree to sex: "We flirted, we kissed, but I did not consent to that. I asked him to stop."

Edwards told police Tanya's friend, referring to the complainant, said: "My mate likes black guys and I like mixed-race guys."

He saw both young women making-out with unknown black men in doorways outside the pub and joined in with the complainant and her companion.

They moved to the house entrance, where she gave them both oral sex and had full intercourse.

"He pulled her trousers and her knickers down slightly. 

"I'm having sex with her from behind, then swapped with the black boy and then we swapped again."

Edwards told the jury: "She seemed to be enjoying it. I did not rape her."

He admitted hoping to have a threesome with the complainant and her friend when he first saw them: "If I was lucky. Yes."

He denied "taking advantage" of the young woman and failing as a fireman to protect her. "There was no way of saying she needed protecting."

CCTV showed the pair returning to the pub afterwards and the woman did not say anything to the staff or many police who were still in the area.