Student’s rape charge cleared after drunken confusion

Apparently he stopped when she called out his friend’s name, thinking it was him.

After a gruelling year of court trials, economics student at the University of Salford, Sam Obeghe, has been cleared of his rape charges after sleeping with a woman who claimed that she thought she was with a different man.

The 21-year-old shop assistant began calling out the name of Obeghe’s close friend, Zack Garrigan, who had allegedly left the room to get some viagra.

She told the court that she only realised it was not 22-year-old Zack when she ran her fingers through Sam’s hair, which felt different. At this point they stopped having sex.

She allegedly ran out in hysterics and the police subsequently showed up to arrest Mr Obeghe in his pyjamas.

After a 17 month wait for a trial, the now 26-year-old was cleared of all charges at Bolton Crown Court on Wednesday, after a deliberation of only 27 minutes.

According to the woman, the room was pitch black so she could not tell the two men apart, despite the fact that they are different races. It is said that they also have very different features and voices.

She said: “I was saying Zack’s name because I thought it was him I was having sex with. The person hugging and kissing me didn’t feel any different.

“I thought this was Zack, I called his name four or five times. It went on for a couple of minutes until I put my hands through his hair and realised it was not Zack but was Sam. I was screaming ‘what are you doing’ he ran out of the room.

“I was embarrassed and ran out. Zack was asking what was wrong, I was just saying that I needed to get out.”

The woman had been out drinking in Bolton with a friend on the 5th December 2014 the night that the event occurred. A group of them returned to Sam Obeghe’s flat, driven by Sam in his BMW.

Sam’s account of the night is somewhat different to the woman’s:

“I could tell she was drunk – her and Zack were the same,” he said.

“Music was playing and they were kissing and then went into my bedroom. I sat there thinking ‘what have I done’ bringing them back here because I had work the next day. I saw Zack coming out, first naked and I was saying ‘come on I need to go to bed.’

“I asked him ‘are you guys leaving?’ but he was not really paying attention to what I was saying and I said ‘I’m going to go and get her out.’

“I walked into the bedroom sat on the bed and started nudging the woman saying ‘go and meet Zack in the living room’. At first I lay there thinking ‘finally I can go to bed’ but she grabbed me.

“I was just thinking ‘I didn’t really want to have sex with her’ but I’m a human being and if you get touched like that you have a motivation to move on. I figured she was probably very drunk but she grabbed me saying ‘come on Zack’ then I realised she’s thinking I’m Zack so I jumped off the bed and jumped out of the room.

“I went into the living room and told Zack. He was sort of laughing and then I saw her storming out and she was screaming. I was in shock. I didn’t climb on top of her and kiss her.”

He was too upset to discuss the events after his ‘not-guilty’ verdict. His Lawyer, Sarah Johnson, spoke on his behalf:

“We are not suggesting this is a wicked woman telling a wicked pack of lies – but she couldn’t remember everything that happened in that bedroom. She’s not someone you can say is accurate and reliable.

“She said the room was pitch black and she couldn’t see anything, despite the defendant being of a different ethnicity, having different features and a different voice. It was only when putting her hand through his hair she put her head back and it’s that movement of her head that allows her to see that it’s Sam and not Zack.”