‘It sets a scary precedent’: Woman suing CPS after it dropped her rape case over claims she had sexsomnia
Thirteen days before the man accused of raping her was due to stand trial, Jade McCrossen-Nethercott was told her case was being dropped.
After a phone call from the police the day before, the then 24-year-old met with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
They told her that because she was asleep when the incident happened, two sleep experts employed by the defence team had claimed she could have suffered a random episode of ‘sexsomnia’ – and therefore the case was no longer viable.
Sexsomnia is a rare sleep condition that causes people to engage in sexual activity while unconscious.
In her police statement after the incident in 2017 she had briefly mentioned being a deep sleeper and sleepwalking a couple of times when she was a teenager – but in the three years since it had never been brought up again.
“It was the first I’d ever heard of it,” she told Sky News.
“I was trying to understand. It didn’t make any sense to me. It was baffling. I was completely shellshocked.”
Pic: BBC
Ms McCrossen-Nethercott had gone back to a friend’s house for a drink after a night out in south London when she woke up feeling as though she had been sexually assaulted.
She had fallen asleep on the sofa at around 2am and awoke roughly three hours later naked from the waist down and with her necklace broken on the floor.
A man, whose semen was later found on her vaginal swabs, was sat next to her on the sofa.
Asking him what had happened, he replied: “I thought you were awake.”
Ms McCrossen-Nethercott reported it to the police, underwent forensic testing, and the man was charged with rape.
He had offered no comment to police, pleaded not guilty at magistrates court and was due to appear at crown court in just under two weeks when the CPS discontinued the case.
“I made a few blasé comments to the police about sleepwalking when I was younger.
“They were clutching at straws, it was them panicking,” she said.
Sleep experts had never met or spoken to her
With the right to appeal the CPS’s decision she requested all the case documents, including those linked to the two sleep experts.
“Those two experts had never spoken to me on the phone – let alone met me in person,” Ms McCrossen-Nethercott said.
“Their decision was based on a 15-question questionnaire – and the defendant’s statement.
“It was so loosely drawn together – this ‘argument’ that I had sexsomnia.”
She then commissioned her own sleep expert, from the London Sleep Centre, to provide counterevidence.
He had never come across an alleged victim having the condition. In the UK only people accused of rape or sexual assault have alleged to have had it – using it as a defence.
The expert also explained it usually occurs in men – who have had a history of it before.
Pic: BBC
Sleep tests commissioned by him showed Ms McCrossen-Nethercott had mild sleep apnoea – when breathing briefly stops and starts again during sleep.
Because this has been identified as one of the triggers of sexsomnia, he said he couldn’t rule out an isolated episode.
“Sleep apnoea is so common a lot of people don’t even know they have it,” she said.
Determined to prove the CPS wrong, she turned to a lawyer instead.
According to the law in England and Wales, a person cannot consent to sex if they are asleep.
But someone cannot be found guilty of raping someone if they can prove they had “reasonable belief” the other person consented.
The lawyer, who had defended men in cases involving sexsomnia, claimed sleep and medical experts are never able to definitively prove someone has the disorder.
This means it could be used to convince a jury someone is not guilty.
Finally she submitted her appeal.
CPS review ruled decision was wrong
A retired crown prosecutor not involved in the original case concluded it should have gone to trial.
He said the sleep experts and the defendant’s claims of sexsomnia should have been cross-examined.
Ultimately he believed it was “more likely than not” the defendant would have been convicted by a jury.
But despite his verdict and an apology from the CPS, the case cannot be reopened, as the man was formally acquitted and there are laws against double jeopardy.
Ms McCrossen-Nethercott told Sky News that with just 1.3% of rape cases resulting in a prosecution in England and Wales, she did not expect the case to reach trial.
But when she was told there would be one, she says: “I was hopeful and optimistic.
“I felt confident in how I reported what had happened.”
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With the help of the Centre for Women’s Justice, she has now submitted a letter of claim to sue the CPS on human rights grounds.
“The CPS let me down and they’re letting every other woman and girl down to,” she said.
“I did as much as I could and yet nothing can be done.
“It’s really hard to heal from something that makes no sense.”
After further communication with the CPS last year, the now 30-year-old was unable to work for six months due to mental ill-heath.
“Last year I had really bad dark times. But I’m in a better place now, with the support of my friends, family and my partner.”
A CPS spokesperson said in a statement: “We have apologised unreservedly to the victim in this case. The expert evidence and defendant’s account should have been challenged and put before a jury to decide.
“We are committed to improving every aspect of how life-changing crimes like rape are dealt with and are working closely with the police to transform how they are handled.
“We remain positive about the progress that is being made but recognise there is still a long way to go so more victims come forward and report with confidence.”
While the nature of Donald Trump’s second state visit is indeed unusual, from the moment Sir Keir Starmer delivered the gold-edged invitation it began a process steeped in tradition.
State visits are usually reserved to one per head of state, with Trump last hosted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.
Typically, second-term US presidents are offered a shorter visit, perhaps tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle. But the red carpet is literally being rolled out once again, with Trump receiving a second full state visit, with all the pomp and pageantry it entails.
An indication was given early on in Trump’s second term that he’d be receptive to a second state visit, and so – on perhaps the advice of the new prime minister – the King issued a second invitation.
The greatest form of tradition is one that always evolves, and so this may now set a new precedent for presidents who are voted out but then return to serve a second term.
Trump and his wife Melania with the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in 2019. Pic: PA
Any nation can hold a state visit, but what is unique about Britain remains our internationally respected pageantry.
Even down to the very invitation – there is a very precise format for inviting someone on a state visit.
An invite must be issued, established by international law. Written on a special gold-edged paper, embossed with a golden coat of arms that is issued, it forms part of a historic archive.
Breaches of protocol
Much has been made in the past about moments where protocol was breached – Michelle Obama famously put her arm around Queen Elizabeth in 2011, but, in all honesty, I doubt very much the Queen was upset by this.
The fuss was not made by the late monarch, who accepted that what mattered was that Americans should be made very welcome on behalf of the UK.
The Obamas meeting the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh during their 2011 state visit. Pic: PA
In 2018, criticism emerged against Trump, who appeared to make the Queen change places when the Guard of Honour was to be inspected.
But, in truth, it was Elizabeth II who had to correct herself because, in her long life as sovereign, she never escorted a visiting president.
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When Trump met the Queen
The escort should stand further from the troops and her self-correction was misinterpreted as his error.
Trump’s visit this time will likely generate just as many headlines, but I don’t think there will be critical moments where a breach occurs.
What it means for Trump – and is it worth it?
Trump’s mother would cut out and keep in a scrapbook containing pictures of the young Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret Rose. It was an era before endless celebrity news, a time when public life revolved around the royals, the war, and survival.
And the president loved his mother, like many men do, so these things mean an enormous amount to him.
Read more:
No state visit has had a backdrop quite like this
Trump and Charles inspect the Guard of Honour. Pic: PA
When the horses go back to the stables and the carriages are put away, the impact of this visit will remain fresh in the mind of a president who may feel his nation – and maybe even he himself – have been affirmed by their ally.
Quite apart from the politics, although much will be said and written on that, there is one great hope for any state visit: that the country so many (myself included) have fought for can be safer and more successful as a result of the pomp and pageantry on display.
The suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has had strict conditions slapped on him ahead of his expected release from prison in the morning.
Christian B, who can’t be fully identified under privacy laws, will have to wear an electronic tag, surrender his passport and register his address with probation officers.
The German drifter, 49, is being freed after serving a seven-year sentence for rape, but remains the only suspect for the abduction of Madeleine, the toddler who vanished on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007.
It was not known where he would head, or who might help him adjust to a new life as the only suspect in the world’s most notorious unsolved child abduction mystery.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who leads the Madeleine investigation, believes Christian B, 49, abducted and murdered the three-year-old during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007.
Madeleine vanished from her bed in a rented apartment as her parents and their friends dined nearby at the hotel complex in Praia da Luz on the Algarve coast.
Madeleine McCann
Earlier this week it emerged the Metropolitan Police had sent a formal “international letter of request” to Christian B in order for them to interview him – but he rejected it.
Explainer: The chequered history of Christian B
In the past few days, a probation case conference decided on the restrictions which his lawyers are expected to challenge.
His lawyer Philipp Marquort said: “This is an attempt by the public prosecutor’s office to keep him in a kind of pre-trial detention where they would have access to him at any time.”
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How could Christian B refuse to be interviewed by the Metropolitan Police?
Christian B has denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
Madeleine, who was nearly four, was sleeping in a room with her younger twin siblings when she went missing.
Donald Trump has arrived in the UK for his second state visit, telling reporters Britain is “a very special place”.
But as he headed to the residence of the US ambassador to the UK in central London to spend Tuesday night, giant projections of the president alongside paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were beamed on to Windsor Castle by protesters.
It is there he will meet with King Charles later today.
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Projection on to Windsor Castle highlights Trump-Epstein links
Four people were arrested on “suspicion of malicious communications” after the images of Mr Trump and Epstein appeared on the landmark, Thames Valley Police said.
Mr Trump has faced mounting questions about his relationship with the disgraced late billionaire after messages allegedly sent to him by the president were published by Congress earlier this month.
The apparent notes – which Mr Trump denies having written – appeared in a 2003 “birthday book” for Epstein which also included messages from Peter Mandelson, who has since been sacked as Sir Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the US over his ties to the financier.
Trump’s mugshot was also beamed on to the castle. Pic: Reuters
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper was among those who greeted the president and First Lady Melania as they disembarked their official plane at Stansted airport on Tuesday evening.
An honour guard of RAF personnel from The King’s Colour Squadron lined up as he stepped off the plane.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump disembark Air Force One. Pic: Reuters
Trump excited to see ‘my friend’ Charles
Speaking to reporters mid-flight, Trump said: “My relationship is very good with the UK, and Charles, as you know, who’s now King, is my friend.
“It’s the first time this has ever happened where somebody was honoured twice. So, it’s a great honour.”
He told the journalists “everybody is looking forward to it. You’re going to have the best pictures”.
The president speaks to reporters on his way over. Pic: Reuters
To mark the president’s arrival, a new UK-US tech deal was announced that could generate billions of pounds of investment for Britain.
Sir Keir – who will host Mr Trump at his Chequers country retreat tomorrow – said the deal would deliver “growth, security and opportunity up and down the country”.
The “tech prosperity deal”, announced as Mr Trump touched down, will see the UK and US co-operate in areas including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear power.
It comes alongside £31bn of investment in Britain from top US tech firms, including £22bn from Microsoft.
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Mark Stone on the significance of Trump’s trip
‘I’m into helping Britain’
It also follows the agreement of an economic deal in May that covered a reduction in some of Mr Trump’s tariffs.
However, the government is understood to have given up hope – for now at least – of reducing the president’s levy on steel back down to zero. It currently stands at 25%.
Mr Trump had hinted at possible tariff relief for British steel as he boarded Air Force One, telling reporters he was “into helping” Britain on refining the trade deal signed earlier this year.
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