US airman found not guilty of rape after review
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PA Media US airman Keharron Lee Bogstad (pictured in 2023) had been accused of rape
A US serviceman accused of raping a woman at an RAF base has been found not guilty, after prosecutors offered no further evidence against him. Keharron Lee Bogstad, 24, denied the three counts of rape and was cleared on the judge's direction, after the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed a "complete log" of social media messages between him and the woman. It was alleged Mr Bogstad had raped her after smuggling her in his car boot into RAF Croughton, in Northamptonshire, in late 2020 and early 2021. Prosecutor Paul Jarvis KC told Northampton Crown Court on Tuesday there was no longer a realistic prospect of a jury reaching a guilty verdict after the defence served a "large number of messages".
The US airman Keharron Lee Bogstad had been accused of smuggling a woman into RAF Croughton
The court heard the messages were not disclosed to the Crown by the defence until the first day of the trial on 16 September of Mr Bogstad. Mr Jarvis said the Crown was now offering no evidence in the case after the review of thousands of social media messages. The messages appeared to be a "complete record" of communications between Bogstad and the woman, Mr Jarvis said. He added a "thorough review" of the material, involving senior prosecutors, had reached the conclusion there was no longer a realistic prospect of a jury reaching a guilty verdict. Judge Adrienne Lucking KC directed the jury to return unanimous not guilty verdicts on all three counts and Mr Bogstad was discharged from the dock. Jurors had been sent home on Wednesday and had not returned until Tuesday because of legal argument.
PA Media Keharron Bogstad was on trial at Northampton Crown Court
Mr Bogstad denied rape on the grounds he genuinely and reasonably believed the woman had been consenting during activity involving sado-masochistic sexual practices. During a police video interview from 2022, played to the jury last week, the woman said she had provided screengrabs of "the worst" messages sent between her and Mr Bogstad as she "just wanted to be helpful". She also said she had deleted the social media app they used from her phone. Mr Bogstad's trial did not reach the stage where he could give evidence to the jury, but the court heard he discussed "the line" around the issue of consent with the woman in a social media message, telling her: "I don't want to cross that ever."
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More on this story Rape-accused US airman 'smuggled woman on to base'
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