10 Apr 2014

What will the future hold for Nigel Evans?

“Thank you,” said Nigel Evans, nodding towards the jury in gratitude.

The former Deputy Speaker could not hide his emotions as he was cleared of rape and seven charges of sexual or indecent assault and one charge of attempted sexual assault.

As he left the court a free man he couldn’t contain his tears.

Fifteen British politicians have gone to jail over the last 14 years, for a range of offences, but not for many decades has any sitting MP faced such serious charges as Nigel Evans faced in Preston this last month.

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But after sitting for almost 24 hours the seven men and five women on the jury pronounced him not guilty on all nine charges, which stretched from 2002 to 2013, and ranged from the extremely trivial – an attempted kiss – to the very severe, alleged rape.

All the alleged victims were young men in their 20s, though at least two of them said in court that they did not see themselves as victims.

One victim said; “I considered it to be embarrassing rather than serious – I did not consider the incident to be of a criminal nature in any way. I now consider the incident to be little more than a source of banter amongst friends.”

Evans was accused by the Prosecution of misusuing his power as a senior MP and deputy speaker to carry out a series of assaults. Evans argued the anal intercourse was consensual.

And one of the one alleged sexual assaults which he could recall was, he said, an attempted pass which went wrong because he misread the signals.

The CPS now faces big questions over whether they were right to bring the case, especially after their failure of other recent cases against big-name figures.

In particular was the CPS right to combine very minor offences with very serious ones in its attempt to paint a picture of Evans as a drunken sexual predator?

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The other big question is what happens to Nigel Evans. It’s hard to see how he gets back his job as Deputy Speaker of the Commons.

He’ll presumably get the Conservative whip back at Westminster, but the chairman of his constituency association in Ribble Valley, Michael Ransome, told me it’s too early to say if Evans will stand for election again next year.

Most of his local party would probably love him to stand again. The decision really lies with Evans himself, and he’s probably in too much of an emotional state right now to know what he wants.

The trial has been a humiliating experience, in which, for example, he’s been forced to talk about the minute details of having sex.

Evans has also been greatly stung by what he regards as the betrayals of people he thought were good friends and colleagues. In the end it wouldn’t surprise me he decided politics is no longer for him.

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