At trial Max Elliott denied the charge and said he thought he had consensual sex
A former university student has been found not guilty of rape. Prosecutors alleged Max Elliott, 24, ‘stealthed’ a female student at the University of Manchester after the pair met at a party. It was said that she gave consent for sex on the condition he used a condom.
It was alleged that Mr Elliott did not use a condom, which ‘removes’ her consent to sex. “What would otherwise have been consensual sexual intercourse in law then becomes rape,” prosecutor Henry Blackshaw said.
Prosecutors also alleged Mr Elliott ‘admitted what he had done’ to his friends and donated money to a ‘rape victims charity’.
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Mr Elliott, from Surrey, says the woman told him they should ‘probably’ use a condom. Mr Elliott claimed she would have known he was not using a condom because she had performed oral sex on him shortly before.
After 45 minutes of deliberations, a jury at Minshull Street Crown Court found Mr Elliott not guilty of the single charge of rape.
Jurors were told that Mr Elliott and the alleged victim were both university students at the time. They met at a student party and the woman was ‘clearly attracted’ to Mr Elliott, the court heard.
They returned to his accommodation where they engaged in ‘clearly consensual’ sexual acts. Prior to engaging in full sexual intercourse, the woman asked Mr Elliott to use a condom because she was not using a contraceptive pill, jurors heard.
Mr Blackshaw said she provided him with a condom and that she deliberately turned her back on him, to give him ‘space and privacy’. They began having sex and that ‘at the point of ejaculation she started to realise that in fact he was not wearing a condom’. The woman was said to have told Mr Elliott: “Did you just do what I think you did?”
She was also said to have told him: “I can’t believe you just violated me like that.” Jurors heard she then noticed the condom she had given to him unwrapped. She said she asked him ‘why you did that?’. Mr Elliott allegedly said: “I’m so sorry, I don’t understand, I don’t understand.”
She then called him an ‘a*******’ and slapped him across the face, jurors heard. She left and returned to her accommodation. She told a flatmate about what had happened, who is said to have told her: “Sounds like you’ve been raped.”
The woman said Mr Elliott texted her offering to pay for a morning after pill, but she declined. Over the next few days she ‘avoided seeing him’ and Mr Elliott texted and asked to meet up to speak about what happened, jurors were told.
They heard that one night Mr Elliott called her, sounding ‘broken and hollow’ and saying that he ‘really, really’ wanted to speak to her. He said that he was ‘dropping out’ of university and was taking the train home the following day. She agreed to meet him the following morning.
She met him in a park and described Mr Elliott looking like ‘a shell of his previous self’. Mr Elliott allegedly told the woman: “I hold myself up to a high standard, this is a bump in the road. I’m not a bad person. This was a mistake, and I can’t apologise enough.”
Prosecutors claimed Mr Elliott had also met up with a friend, telling him that he had ‘f***** up’ and ‘done something bad’. They claim he told the friend that he’d pretended to put a condom on during sex.
The friend told another pal, who both then spoke with Mr Elliott. Mr Elliott allegedly told them: “I know, I’ve done wrong, I’ve donated £200 to a rape charity.”
Giving evidence at his trial, Mr Elliott said: “I couldn’t remember who approached first, but it was mutual. We ended up kissing and we danced together. We left the party… and went back to my room.”
He said she performed oral sex upon him, but he was not able to sustain an erection which left him ’embarrassed’.
“At this point nothing was wrong,” he told the court. “There was perhaps a sense that she was a bit disappointed and the atmosphere was a bit awkward. At that point she got on top of me and straddled me and it felt clear we were about to have sexual intercourse.”
Mr Elliott said he tried to penetrate the woman, but was unable to. “At that point it was fairly clear we were going to have sex and she said to me ‘you should probably wear a condom’”, he told jurors.
He said the woman handed him a condom from her bag. Mr Elliott added: “I thought briefly about putting it on, but I had a semi at that point and was not able to put it on. I placed it on the shelf. As far as I knew, I thought she could see my penis and see I was not wearing a condom.”
Mr Elliott accepted he was not wearing a condom at the time. He said believed the woman was aware he was not wearing one after engaging in foreplay. “There was no break when I could have put it on, she must have been aware,” he said. “She didn’t indicate she didn’t want to have sex.”
He denied being ‘animalistic’ or ‘violent’ and denied forcing himself on her. “The atmosphere was good, enthusiastic and consensual,” Mr Elliott added.
Jurors found Mr Elliott, of Station Road, Thames Ditton, Surrey, not guilty of rape and he was discharged from the dock.
