Judge slams police after teacher is acquitted of kissing a friend

A judge has criticised the police after a part-time teacher was put on trial for giving a female friend an unwanted kiss, telling officers they should be concentrating on catching robbers and violent thugs. David Owusu-Akyead was charged with sexual assault after he kissed a woman he knew without her consent. But the 27-year-old from Thornton Heath, south London, was unanimously cleared following a two-day trial at Croydon Crown Court leading the judge to comment that the job of the police was “dealing with robbers and vicious assaults, not a kiss”. The court heard how Mr Owusu-Akyead had called at the home of his alleged victim, who he claimed to know well, in November last year.

He was invited in by the woman but she claimed she had begun to feel uncomfortable when he started to discuss sex. The woman told the court she felt he was invading her personal space and accused him of following her. After a while she asked him to leave at which point it was alleged he grabbed her round the waist and kissed her on the lips. The court heard that the kiss lasted around three or four seconds and the next day he sent the woman an email apologising for his behaviour. But when she complained to the police, seven officers from the Violent Crime Team were drafted in to investigate.

Mr Owusu-Akyead was eventually charged with sexual assault – a crime that carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. The defendant denied kissing the woman on the lips and insisting it had merely been a peck on the cheek. He told the court: “I think she overreacted. She never gave me the impression she wanted me to leave.” Mr Owusu-Akyead was acquitted after a two-day trial, which is likely to have cost the taxpayer in excess of £10,000.

Following the case Recorder William Stevenson QC criticised the police team and the crown prosecution service. He said: “I am slightly surprised, looking at the account he gave in interview, that the CPS advised the police to charge him." But a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said they had recommended the case be dealt with by a magistrates' court but the defendant had elected to go for a jury trial. The spokesman also added that the judge had the opportunity to halt the trial after the prosecution opening but had chosen not to do so.