Grammy-nominated British rapper Slowthai, real name Tyron Frampton, has been cleared at Oxford crown court of raping two women during a house party after the musician’s gig at the Bullingdon in Oxford in September 2021.
Frampton burst into tears as the jurors cleared him and his co-accused, Alex Blake-Walker, of three counts of rape, after 10 hours of deliberation. Blake-Walker was also cleared of one count of sexual assault.
Judge Ian Pringle told the court that the case had “raised a lot of high feelings”.
Frampton’s wife, the pop star Anne-Marie, sighed as the verdicts were read.
Frampton and Blake-Walker walked free from the dock after the judge told them they were able to leave.
Frampton and Blake-Walker had previously denied three joint counts of rape and one of sexual assault, and said the two women consented to all sexual activity.
In closing arguments last week, prosecutor Heather Stangoe had told the jury that they should not try and be “Wagatha Christies” and seek to investigate the case themselves, but to decide based on the evidence they had heard. “This is not CSI, this is not an American drama – this is a case about real people and things that happened in real life.”
Defending Frampton, Patrick Gibbs KC had said there were a dozen “problems” with the prosecution’s case, and defended his client as not being “everybody’s stereotype of a rapper”, but a “thoughtful”, “modest” man who “throws himself, sometimes recklessly, into life”.
He told the jury that even if Frampton was acquitted, “he’ll be cancelled for the rest of time”.
Defending Blake-Walker, Sheryl Nwosu said in her closing remarks that the evidence for the prosecution “doesn’t fit with Mr Blake-Walker and his behaviour on the night” and that he believed the plaintiff was “fully consenting”.
Judge Ian Pringle said at the time the case was a “question of consent” and that there was “no stereotype for a perpetrator or victim of rape”.
Stangoe said that Frampton and Blake-Walker had met a group of women before the show and given them VIP tickets, and that the women later met him on the tour bus. After Frampton and Blake-Walker went to one of the women’s houses, Stangoe said that Frampton made two rules: “No phones and no boys.”
It was alleged that Blake-Walker raped the first woman at the encouragement of Frampton, who was accused of raping the second woman twice at the encouragement of Blake-Walker. Both men were accused of sexually assaulting the second woman.
Stangoe said the women were “isolated from their friends” and then raped and sexually assaulted on the roof while the two men joked, gave each other high-fives, “discussed ‘tag teams’ and contemplated swapping the girls”. She said that when the women’s friends realised what was happening and intervened, Frampton ran away.
Frampton told the court that sexual activity had taken place between him and the second woman but said she had given consent. He said that he and Blake-Walker had “fist-bumped” but denied that it was a gesture of encouragement.
After the two women reported the incident to the police that night, Frampton and Blake-Walker were arrested and interviewed. The allegations came to light in May 2023 when Frampton appeared in Oxfordshire magistrates court via video link on two charges of rape.
The musician, whose second album, Tyron, reached No 1 in 2021, was later removed from the lineups of Glastonbury and the Reading and Leeds festivals.
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