Michael Fallon’s former-adviser blasts cops after being cleared for sexual assault in JUST 30 minutes
Richard Holden says he wants his life and his career back after being cleared on sexual assault charges following a prolonged probe by cops
A FORMER adviser to Michael Fallon has launched a blistering attack on bungling cops and prosecutors after he was cleared of sex assault by a jury in just 30 minutes.
Richard Holden, 33, a former Tory press chief, had his life wrecked by the 15 month "Kafqaesque nightmare" that started when he took a Met Police phone call at his Ministry of Defence desk.
He was immediately placed on "special leave" after the alleged victim also complained to the Cabinet Office and Home Secretary.
At a police station in south London on St Valentine's Day last year, he was told he supposedly tried to put his hand inside the coat of a woman at a Christmas party at his home before feeling her bum and privates.
The party was being staged to announce his new girlfriend Charlotte to a bunch of close friends.
When the investigation dragged on for months, Mr Holden resigned, leaving him unable to pay rent and scratching around for a new job.
Writing for Conservative Home online magazine, he said: "The police contacted everyone they could get hold of who had been at the party – but when none of the other guests could back up the complainant’s story, the police just refused to take statements from them.
"My entire life has been torn apart and there’s no sign that the police are ever going to conclude this investigation.
"My girlfriend and I broke up in late summer under the relentless pressure of the situation."
After nine months, he was told by the Crown Prosecution Service he must appear before magistrates in four weeks - and was lumbered with massive barrister fees. A trial date was set for six months later.
He added: "Then we got the disclosure of the evidence. I looked through it, bemused. One person says that I seemed a bit drunk at one point late in the night.
"Another person says he saw me hug someone, but that may have been my girlfriend...police had comprehensively failed to investigate."
He accused detectives of sifting-out the evidence of people who didn't back the complainant, whose phone containing "great party" messages was not even examined. Hopeful MP Mr Holden - now back with Charlotte - slammed police for wasting "hundreds of hours and hundreds of thousands of pounds" on the fruitless probe.
He added the judge's words saying he had not "a stain on his character" showed friends were right to support him but added: "I still want my life back. I want my career back, too."
SUN SAYS
THE police and CPS should be ashamed of the shocking ordeal to which they subjected innocent Richard Holden.
There was no credible evidence to support the groping claim against the ex-Westminster special adviser.
But they put him through 15 months of torture which wrecked his life and career. Their case fell to bits and a bemused jury cleared him in minutes.
The CPS and police have a disgraceful recent record for trying to prosecute the flimsiest of sex cases.
Even so, how did this one ever get before a judge?
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