UK man cleared of raping NZ tourist 18 years ago

A British court yesterday cleared a man of raping a New Zealand tourist 18 years ago after he insisted she had been a willing one-night stand.

Christopher James Coutanche, 43, allegedly attacked her after saying some of his friends were drunk and needed help.

The woman told London's Blackfriars Crown Court that the man lured her to a deserted balcony in a block of flats before being made to perform humiliating sex acts and then forced to have sex.

Coutanche, of Wrexham in North Wales, was arrested earlier this year after a DNA match linked him to the alleged assault.

He appeared in February before a judge at Liverpool Crown Court charged with having raped the woman, who was in her 20s, in Hammersmith, London, on October 15, 1988.

The case was transferred to Blackfriars Crown Court as the alleged offence happened in London.

Coutanche was tracked by London "cold case" detectives after a recent violent attack on another woman.

They linked him through DNA samples with the alleged rape of the New Zealand woman.

Coutanche did not give evidence. Jurors took three hours to clear him of the rape and two indecent assault charges.

The court was told that Coutanche told police that while he could not now remember making love to the woman, she must have been among the consensual "one-night stands" he had in his 20s.

- NZPA