He Spent 32 Days In Jail After His Ex-Wife Falsely Accused Him Of Rape. Now He’s Suing For $500,000.

An Australian man who spent 32 days in jail after his wife falsely accused him of rape and domestic abuse has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $500,000 in damages.

The man, who has not been named, is suing the police, prosecutors, and his ex-wife for his ordeal.

The man’s nightmare began in 2015 while his and his ex-wife’s marriage was falling apart. She, a pediatrician in Sydney, had been abusing the prescription painkiller Tramadol for at least five years, writing prescriptions in her husband’s name, Australian news source news.com.au reported. On May 4, 2015, the man discovered that his wife had been carrying on a sexually explicit conversation with a man in London.

The couple began arguing, during which time the man threw the woman’s phone out their front door, which broke the screen. This would later be included as a charge of domestic violence against the man. He was also charged with a second count of domestic violence for sending his ex-wife an explicit photo she had once sent him with a sarcastic comment about the man in London liking such a photo.

This photo, prosecutors argued, was evidence of “revenge porn.”

After the woman moved out, she returned to the home on June 15, 2015. Days later she would claim her ex-husband raped her three times during this visit.

“The dogs came running toward me and (the husband) invited me in to see them,” she reportedly told police, according to news.com.au. She said her ex-husband “kissed her very forcefully” and then put his hand down her skirt “to the point where it hurt me.” She said he then shoved her against the wall and raped her from behind.

 

“I tried to push him away with my hand,” she said in a statement obtained by news.com.au. “He then forcefully had sexual intercourse with me so hard that my forehead was hitting the wall. I tried to turn around so I could see what he would do next. I didn’t want to be facing away from him. He was smiling.”

She said he raped her twice more after that.

Unbeknownst to the woman, her ex-husband had installed video cameras in the home the day before she visited. Footage from the cameras showed the sex was consensual. Further, the day after the alleged multiple rapes, the woman texted the man to have a “safe flight” as he was traveling to Europe for business.

She went to the police four days later.

 

Police investigated her claims for two years and reportedly ignored exculpatory evidence provided by the man, news.com.au reported.

He initially pleaded guilty to the two counts of domestic violence (this is common, as people fear they will face harsher penalties in court trying to prove their innocence than they would simply pleading guilty and receiving a deal), but those charges were dismissed by Judge Mark Williams.

Williams also issued a rare Prasad direction, which “allows a jury to find a defendant not guilty any time after the close of the Crown in cases where there is insufficient evidence to justify a conviction,” according to news.com.au. Williams said the case against the man was “most unsatisfactory” and should never have been brought against him in the first place.

“I was never far from ending it all after my release from prison,” the man told news.com.au. “The actions of police were so deliberate and savage that it made me doubt everything.”