A businessman who tried to persuade a woman to drop her allegations of rape and assault against him has been jailed for perverting the course of justice.
Steven Stanley Dickens was sentenced to eight months in prison at Mold Crown Court yesterday.
The 52-year-old had denied three such charges but was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in June.
He was unanimously acquitted by a jury of the rape and assault charges after a trial in March last year.
During the latest trial, jurors were told the case involved what happened in the weeks and months leading up to the rape trial, including phone calls made to the woman and an associate in October 2014, when Dickens was on remand at Altcourse Prison in Liverpool.
Neither Dickens nor the woman gave evidence during the latest trial.
In June, prosecutor Elen Owen said the defendant, of Mostyn Avenue, Craig y Don, Llandudno, had been “putting huge pressure on the woman to retract her statements”, but she continued with her complaint regardless.
Ben Morris, defending Dickens, said the woman had made a retraction statement to drop the charges “under her own free will” but had been “forced” by police to give evidence against him.
He claimed police had “ignored” a retraction made by the woman.
After deliberating for six hours, the jury of six men and six women unanimously found Dickens guilty of three counts: making a series of telephone calls to the woman trying to persuade her to drop the allegations against him and giving her instructions on how to retract a statement; giving an associate instructions on how to persuade the woman to retract her statement; and making reference to a retraction statement made by the woman and asking her if she knew what the sentence would be for the assault allegations she had not retracted.
Detective Sergeant Jim Jones from North Wales Police said: “Perverting the course of justice is an extremely serious offence. No one is above the law.
“Trust and confidence in our legal system is essential and any interference in the process of justice is likely to result in serious consequences.”
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/llandudno-businessman-steven-dickens-jailed-11693623
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