Top Boy Star Michael Ward’s Rape Accuser Deleted Texts Because She Was ‘Embarassed’

Top Boy actor Michael Ward was unanimously found not guilty of all rape and sexual assault charges at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London on Friday.

The British actor, 28, had been accused of raping a woman in the back of a Mercedes after meeting her on a night out.

Here are the facts of the case and what happened on the night…

• Ward and his accuser met at a New Year’s party at a nightclub in Ilford, East London. They exchanged Snapchat details and texted flirty messages to each other.
• They moved to the back of a friend’s Mercedes outside the club. Both Ward and the accuser agreed in court that the kissing and intimate touching during this initial encounter were 100% consensual.
• Later they went to an after party, and again hooked up in the car – this time, penetrative sex.
• The victim testified that she wasn’t comfortable, froze up/shut down, was “overpowered”, did not say “no” but did say things like her friends were waiting and she wanted to leave.
• Ward testified that it was consensual and that the situation progressed in a “natural, hot way” and that they were both “having a great time.”
• Afterwards, Ward texted her a crying emoji and a heart emoji, and she responded with “I hope you enjoy the rest of your night”.
• She got into a car with her friend. Her friend testified that she was visibly upset and burst into tears when asked what was wrong. 
• She ordered an STI test, and in that order there’s a box to tick if you have been sexually assaulted, and she did tick that box.

Now, here’s where the accuser became unreliable. During the investigation, she produced to police altered versions of her texts with Ward, where she deleted all of her responses to his messages (which were friendly and flirty).

She produced the legit versions 18 months later, after the police were asking her friends for screenshots of their texts with the “victim” that night (and she realised that their investigation would eventually turn up the correct version on Ward’s phone).

In court, she testified that she deleted the messages in the version she gave police because she was embarrassed and worried people wouldn’t believe her assault claim if they saw how friendly she was being afterwards.

She also testified that the sexual encounter left her “bleeding”, but forensic analysis found absolutely no trace of blood on her clothing.

Now, despite all this, there’s a chance the accuser genuinely did not consent, but in the UK, for rape, the prosecution needs to prove both a lack of consent AND that the defendant did not have a reasonable belief of consent.

There’s a lot of evidence supporting why he’d think it was all consensual, and so whatever was going through her mind on the night, it would have been a complete injustice for Michael Ward to be found guilty.

In fact, you could say it’s been a complete injustice for the lad regardless. Ward won the EE Rising Star Award at the 2020 BAFTAs and was breaking into major Hollywood productions, now he’ll be lucky if he ends up on a BBC original. The truth is producers will be reluctant to be associated with a (relatively) unestablished star who’s just been through a rape case, despite the fact he was found not guilty.

Hopefully that changes when all the noise dies down, because Ward was very good in Top Boy and had a bright future ahead of him. With time, maybe that will still prove to be the case.

For the British woman facing jail in Hong Kong after reporting an alleged rape, click HERE.