Snooker star cleared of rape after telling jury girl consented

A professional snooker player put on trial for raping a student who he claimed had made sexual advances towards him was cleared by a jury at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Quinten Hann, who maintained that the 21-year-old woman had consented to sex, said he was "very relieved" by the verdict. He said he would have to try to rebuild his life.

The South African university student who had made the allegation was not in court yesterday but she had told the jury she was drunk after drinking champagne and a Sex on the Beach cocktail with Mr Hann and his friends at a nightclub.

She had walked to his flat in the Strand, central London, and did not object to him kissing her or to sitting astride him when he was naked.

But she claimed Australian born Mr Hann, 25, had ignored her pleas to stop when he tried to have intercourse with her on the floor of the lounge. Mr Hann, who is ranked 14 in the world of snooker, told the court he stopped making love, about 15-20 seconds after he started, when she said she felt guilty about her boyfriend.

He insisted the woman had made a play for him and had not objected to him fondling and undressing her.

"I did not try to seduce her," he said. "As much as a woman can go after a man, she went after me. The whole night, she was very willing."

The jury took two and a half hours to acquit Mr Hann – a verdict with which the trial judge, Judge Pontius, said he fully agreed.

The case has reignited the debate over the law of anonymity in rape cases where only the complainant is protected.

Ann Widdecombe, former shadow home secretary, said: "The judge should have discretion at the end of an unsuccessful rape prosecution to name the complainant if he deems the complaint was without foundation."

Miss Widdecombe went on: "We all recognise the distress a woman goes through when she suffers sexual assault or rape but we do not recognise the distress caused to a man who is subject to a false allegation."

Yesterday, Mr Hann's solicitor, Ugo Palazzo, said: "From the moment he was arrested, his character was unfairly damaged, particularly abroad where the media are not subjected to the same reporting restrictions as in England.

"A celebrity like Quinten is often exposed to a greater risk of false allegation than ordinary members of the public and the consequences are far more damaging regardless of final outcome."

During the trial, the court was told the woman had left Mr Hann's flat without making any complaint to him or her friend, who was in a bedroom with his pal Darren James.

The student had even tapped her name and mobile phone number into his phone and arranged to meet him for lunch before she left. He had phoned her as she travelled home in a taxi and they talked for more than four minutes.

In court, she denied making up the rape allegation because of her boyfriend but did say she had a one-night stand with a man in the past to get "revenge" on her boyfriend for being unfaithful.

Hann said he was in bed with a girlfriend within 20 minutes of the student leaving. The woman was still in his bed when police arrived in the morning to handcuff and arrest him.

Mr Hann's barrister, Sir Ivan Lawrence QC, who acted for the defence with his daughter Rachel, called the student "a strange, lying, spiteful young lady". He asked the jury to consider "that in the heat of passion, when a woman says no she does not necessarily mean no. You can say no a thousand times but if you show by your actions you don't mean it, it does not necessary mean consent is withdrawn," he said.

Mr Hann, who is known in snooker circles as the Wizard from Oz, told the court he had lost his sponsorship after the allegation in October last year.

Mr Palazzo said: "The evidence did not support the complainant's account and a decision to pursue the case should have been reviewed thoroughly before the case came to trial."

He added: "The fact that Quinten did not benefit from the anonymity afforded the complainant meant, sadly, that the victim was and remains Quinten Hann."

After the verdict, Judge Pontius expressed concern that Mr Hann – who earned £75,000 last year – was granted £5,000 legal aid. Although a serious case, it would not ordinarily merit the services of a QC, he said.

Sir Ivan said everyone got legal aid automatically when charged with a criminal offence in this country.

He added: "It did not use to be and I won't give you my personal opinion." He added he would have preferred to have been privately funded and that legal aid fees were "hardly worth getting out of bed for".