Every so often, I come across an injustice so huge it literally takes your breath away. This is such a case. It involves the director of a luxury watch brand and a Muslim male waiter.
The director is Simon Correia, 48, who, along with his wife, was staying at London’s Park Plaza Hotel, Riverbank, where there was an awards evening. Mr Correia had been shortlisted for an award.
When the awards were finished, the couple went to the bar to chat with other guests. A waiter was carrying drinks and was becoming perilously close to backing into Mr Correia. So, Mr Correia put his hand on the waiter’s back to warn him. That waiter then complained, first to his employers and later to police, that he had been abused and a finger had penetrated him.
At first, Mr Correria, a father of two who lives in Liverpool, thought it was a prank. Then a female police officer turned up and started questioning him.
He was relieved to learn that there were multiple CCTV cameras in the hotel, which totally supported his story that his hand had only ever touched the waiter’s back.
Even the female officer can be heard saying, as she views the footage, that the film does not support the waiter’s allegation. Nevertheless, Mr Correia was taken to the local police station, where he was kept in a cell for 15 hours.
Despite his protestation of innocence, and for reasons that have never been explained, the police put a case together and the CPS decided he should be charged with sexual assault.
Mr Correia's life was put on hold for a year while he awaited trial. He thought his business career might be over and was fearful that friends, family, and fellow workers would view him in a different light. Who could blame him?
The Mail on Sunday, which first broke the story, report that the case took a significant toll on his mental health, not to mention his bank balance, where he had to find £10,000 for legal fees.
The waiter explained that due to being a follower of Islam, he was ‘’very sensitive to this kind of thing’’. His identity has not been revealed because, as an alleged sex victim, he was granted anonymity. Lucky him.
The grave injustice of a father's year-long 'groping' ordeal takes my breath away - Kelvin MacKenzie
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Finally, the big day arrived at the London Crown Court. And guess what happened. The judge threw the case out in just one hour and 56 minutes, saying the footage wholly contradicted the prosecution's case. His counsel said his clearance was the quickest she had ever heard of.
As you might expect, Mr Correia wept when cleared, with some of the jury shaking his hand, and they too cried.
Personally, I think the solicitor who signed off on bringing the charge should be named and forced to explain why he or she thought it right that this case be brought. Was it because in February last year, when the allegation was first made, the legal authorities were tiptoeing around any issue involving Muslims?
I can’t believe in today’s climate that the allegation against Mr Correia would have been taken seriously. Nobody knows what happened to the waiter.
Effectively, he has been branded a liar by the judge. Has the hotel kept him on? And if so, why? Mr Correia has never received an apology from either the police or the CPS.
He deserves one and deserves to have his £10,000 in legals repaid. This whole case stinks. Why did the police press on when the CCTV clearly showed his hand went to the waiter’s back and not his bum? Why did the CPS take the same view? Could it be, as with the Pakistani grooming gangs, they didn’t want to be viewed as racists? We need to be told, as next time it could be you. Or me.
A Met Police spokesman said: "We have a duty to investigate allegations of crime when it is reported to us. This matter was assessed and then proportionately investigated by officers. Police authorised a charge, and then the case was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service."
A CPS spokesman said: "We recognise the toll the criminal process can take on both defendants and complainants, and we have written to Mr Correia to explain our decision-making in this case."
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