Egyptian asylum seeker is found not guilty of raping ‘paralytic’ stranger in park just six weeks after arriving in UK in small boat packed with 70 migrants

An asylum seeker has been found not guilty of raping a stranger in a seaside park six weeks after arriving in the UK from France.

The jury deliberated for more than seven and a half hours over three days before acquitting Saad Gomaa, a married father of one originally from Egypt, of attacking the woman on June 9.

Prosecutors said Gomaa’s alleged victim was too drunk to consent when she met him at Tower Gardens in Skegness, Lincolnshire.

But Gomaa, 34, said the woman did not appear drunk and consented and accused her of reporting the rape in a 999 call because she felt “cheap” after having sex in public.

The court heard last week that Gomaa arrived in the UK from France on April 28 after British authorities rescued the boat carrying him and 70 other migrants.

The jury deliberated for more than seven and a half hours over three days before acquitting Saad Gomaa, a married father of one originally from Egypt.

Prosecutors said Gomaa’s alleged victim was too drunk to consent when she met him at Tower Gardens (pictured) in Skegness, Lincolnshire.

He told the jury he spent two days in Dover before being driven by car to Skegness with eight other migrants.

During the trial, jurors were told that although Gomaa had applied for asylum, his immigration status was not relevant to the case.

Defense lawyer Karen Walton said Gomaa, who lived in a hotel less than half a mile from the park, had reasonable grounds to believe the woman was not disabled by her drinking.

The accused had been in custody since his arrest in a Skegness bar shortly after the incident, but on Wednesday Judge James House C.C. said he could leave.

The judge said: “Mr Gomaa, you have been discharged. Once the documents are completed, that will be the end of it.

“What happens to any other immigration cases after this is not a matter for the court.”