NOT GUILTY: Analyst Cleared Of Raping Student He Had Sex With In Back Of Cab

An analyst for financial advisor giants Deloitte has been cleared of raping a Cambridge University student on the back seat of a taxi.

Gerald Laryea, 25, says the 21 year-old consented to sex during the journey from a Chalk Farm bar to an address in Lewisham, south-east London.

The University of Leicester business management economics graduate, of Coltsfoot Place, Conniburrow, Milton Keynes was found not guilty of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.

“Both of us, our eyes were looking at each other,” he told the Woolwich Crown Court jury. “I was asking her if she was okay and she said she was fine.

“I initially thought the taxi driver would say something, that’s why I asked her if she wanted to carry on.”

The pair were part of a larger group who earlier in the evening attended a rooftop party at the landmark Roundhouse music venue on July 31, 2015.

Laryea says the young woman thrust her hands down his trousers during the event and CCTV shows them still together when walking to a bar opposite.

The student denies groping Laryea and insist she did not say: “She’s jealous. We’re going to have babies,” when the defendant’s mother warned them to cool down. 

CCTV also shows them holding hands in the bar, which they left in a black cab.

“I remember him pulling me forward and taking my underwear off,” she told the jury. “I think he was kneeling on the floor.”

She said Laryea performed a sex act on her. “I was only half-aware of what was happening.

“I was waking up and thinking: ‘I don’t really want this to happen.’ I was embarrassed.”

She told the court the defendant then tried to rape her. “I could feel him trying to do that. I have a half-formed feeling that he turned me over.

“I could feel him trying to enter me. I could feel him trying to open my legs more.

‘He had sex with me that I did not consent to, that I was too drunk to consent to.

“I think he was touching my boobs.”

She admitted not saying: ’No’ or protesting and says she was simply trying to forget about what was going on.

She gave a statement to police the next day, adding: I’ve had a few panic attacks and flashbacks recently when I’ve been drinking.”

The jury took less than two hours to unanimously clear him of all three charges and afterwards Laryea complained about his lack of anonymity.

The trial was widely reported after exclusively covered by Square Mile News and he said: “It’s totally unfair. 

"Both parties’ anonymity should be kept, and if after a trial it is a guilty verdict then the information should go out.”