Controversial rape case dismissed

Bridgetown.

The controversial rape case against Barbadian Derick Crawford, who was accused and charged by the police of raping two British women Diane Davies and Rachel Turner was dismissed in the Holetown MagistratesCourt this morning.

Crawford, a 47 year old painter was charged with raping Turner, 30, an environmental researcher with the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, in the ruins of an old hotel  on a beach at Holetown, St James, in October 2010.

Two days later her compatriot Davies, a 63 year old grandmother and retired primary school teacher  from Angelsey North Wales was raped on the same spot.

  After Crawford was arrested and charged with the offence, the two women were adamant that he was not their attacker they waved their anomymity to insist publicly that the police had arrested the wrong man, they claimed the man who raped them was 10 to 15 years younger.

They raised money and retained president of the Bar Association Andrew Pilgrim as Crawford's legal  counsel.

After Magistrate Barbara Holder dismissed the case, Pilgrim told the media his client was relieved but is angry he was jailed for a crime he did not do.