A black university student has been cleared of raping a woman who claimed she thought she had been sleeping with his white friend.
Sam Obeghe, then 24, was having sex with the 21-year-old shop assistant in his darkened bedroom following a night out – only to stop when she unexpectedly cried out “Come on, Zack!”
The woman, who had earlier gone to bed with Zack Garrigan, 22, said it was only when she ran her fingers through Obeghe’s hair that she realised she was with the wrong man.
She stormed out in distress and police were alerted, and within three hours of the encounter Obeghe, an economics student at Salford University, was arrested in his pyjamas.
He claimed he had only gone into the room where she was sleeping because he needed to go to bed to get up for work, and that she had “grabbed” him.
“I’m a human being and if you get touched like that you have a motivation to move on,” he added.
He faced a 17-month wait before the trial, and finally this week cried tears of joy after a jury took less than half an hour to find him not guilty.
The Nigerian-born student, who lived in Arizona before coming to Britain, was on a night out in Bolton in December 2014 with Garrigan. They met the woman, who was referred to as Miss X, in the Vogue bar in the early hours. Joined by her female friend and another man, Obeghe, who had not been drinking, drove them all back to his nearby flat at 5am, his trial heard.
Once inside, Miss X and Garrigan kissed before going into Obeghe’s bedroom, Bolton Crown Court was told.
The woman said she and Garrigan did not have sex and she fell asleep while he went into the lounge to try to find some Viagra. But she claimed she was then woken by a man she thought was Garrigan in the bed.
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She told the court the bedroom was ‘pitch black’ and she didn’t realise she was with the wrong person, despite Obeghe being black and having a different accent. “I thought this was Zack, I called his name four or five times,” she said. “The person hugging and kissing me didn’t feel any different.”
“It went on for a couple of minutes until I put my hands through his hair and realised it was not Zack but was Sam.” She said she screamed “What are you doing?” and ran out of the room.
The woman left and later told her mother, who called police.
Obeghe, who according to his Facebook profile has worked for Selfridges and Hugo Boss, told the court the group went back to his flat at 5am.
“I could tell [Miss X] was drunk – her and Zack were the same,” he said. “I sat there thinking, ‘What have I done?’ bringing them back here because I had work the next day. I saw Zack coming out [of my room] first, naked.”
Obeghe said he asked his friend when he and Miss X would be leaving but got no response. “I walked into the bedroom, sat on the bed and started nudging the woman saying, ‘Go and meet Zack in the living room’,” he added. “At first I lay there thinking, ‘Finally I can go to bed’ but she grabbed me.”
“I was just thinking I didn’t really want to have sex with her, but I’m a human being and if you get touched like that you have a motivation to move on… she grabbed me saying, ‘Come on, Zack’ then I realised she’s thinking I’m Zack so I jumped off the bed and jumped out of the room.”
“Zack was sort of laughing and then I saw her storming out and she was screaming. I was in shock. I didn’t climb on top of her and kiss her.”
Obeghe, now 26, fought back tears as he was cleared on Wednesday.
On Thursday he said: “I’m just glad it’s over and I’m feeling much better today. I am studying for exams next week and just want to concentrate on that. I just want to put this behind me.”
