A woman who admitted she lied about being raped claimed a 27-year-old man who survived the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 raped and beat her. While the woman has not been named, nor does it appear she has been arrested for lying and damaging an innocent man’s reputation, the man’s name was included in court documents, though The Daily Wire will not name him since he is innocent, and his accuser is not being named.
The man lived on the third floor of Grenfell Tower when it caught fire in 2017, killing 72 people and injuring 70 more. His family was away from their unit during the tragedy.
He was accused of rape, assault by beating, actual bodily harm, and property damage. The woman claimed the crimes took place between March and May of 2020.
The man denied the charges but was denied bail and kept in custody for seven months until the woman finally admitted to police that she made up the allegations in order to stay in the country.
Isleworth Crown Court Judge Robin Johnson asked prosecutors in the case, “These are quite serious charges, you’ve reviewed them and they’ve been reviewed by the CPS?”
Noel Casey, who was prosecuting the case, replied: “They have been reviewed, firstly there’s been a retraction by the complainant, moreover it has to be said she has been reluctant to participate for some time. That alone would not necessarily be sufficient to justify the decision made. The complainant has made statements to the effect that they were lies and she had made them up to address immigration issues. The different elements are reluctance, retraction of the criminal matter and statements made. The Crown is satisfied that it is enough in this case that the proper approach is to offer no evidence.”
The accused man was then acquitted of the charges.
This is not the first time a fraudster has used the Grenfell tragedy. In April 2018, the Daily Mail reported that Joyce Msokeri was sentenced to a four-and-a-half year jail sentence after claiming she escaped the fire but that her husband had died in it. Msokeri raised £19,000 for her lie before it was discovered she was single and lived miles away from the tower. Msokeri claimed to live in an apartment number that belonged to Mohammed Hakim, who lost his family in the fire. Hakim said he was “sickened” and “disgusted” by Msokeri’s lies. Crown Prosecution Service said at the time that Msokeri even used a vulnerable man to pretend to be her husband, whom she claimed she found living in a cave after the fire. The Mail reported that if Msokeri’s scam had not been discovered, she may have collected more than £200,000 in social services and donations.
There was also 50-year-old Carmel Daly and 52-year-old Robert Kenneally, who claimed they were living in the apartment of a deceased Grenfell Tower resident when the fire broke out. The couple was convicted of fraud.