'Claims I had sexsomnia destroyed my rape case'

» ‘Claims I had sexsomnia destroyed my rape case’


The test indicated that she snores and has mild sleep apnea, a common condition where breathing stops and starts during sleep. Both were, according to Dr Ebrahim, potential trigger factors for sexsomnia, so he could not rule out that she may have had an isolated episode.

Jade wanted to know if he could give her a clear idea of what the chances were that sexsomnia had been to blame for what happened.

“That is the billion dollar question,” said Dr Ebrahim.

“Wanting a definitive, black and white answer – yes it was or no it wasn’t – is not going to happen.”

Jade still believed she didn’t have sexsomnia – but was frustrated the sleep experts couldn’t rule it out.

She turned to a lawyer to find out more about how courts treat the disorder as a defence.

Barrister Allison Summers KC has defended in rape cases where the man accused has claimed to have sexsomnia.

She told Jade that sleep experts are almost never able to say definitively whether someone has the condition – but saying “it’s possible” could be enough for a jury to reach a not guilty verdict.

“Do I think, as a result of that, that some guilty people get off or are acquitted? Yes, I do. But I generally come back to the point that I would rather that be the case, than we’re convicting people of serious offences that are genuinely not guilty,” she said.

“The only thing I can say is that you hope the criminal trial process will enable those genuine cases to be pulled out from those less genuine.”

Sexsomnia and other sleepwalking defences should always be robustly challenged in court, according to the CPS guidelines.

But Jade’s case never made it to court. Armed with her research, she submitted her appeal, known as a victim’s right to review.

A chief crown prosecutor, independent of the CPS department which made the original decision to close the case, reviewed all the evidence again.

He concluded the case should have gone to trial – and that the sleep experts’ opinions, and the defendant’s account, should have been challenged in court.

A jury would have been “more likely than not” to convict the defendant, he said – one of the tests a case must meet for the CPS to take it to trial.

“I cannot begin to imagine what you have been through and how you feel. I noted during my review the devastating effect of this case on you,” he wrote to Jade.

“I apologise unreservedly for this on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service although I appreciate that is likely to be of little consolation to you.”



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