A week before trial, Eleanor's lawyers pushed for a Guilty Plea.

In November 2014, about seven months after Eleanor’s death, David de Freitas launched a media campaign, saying that Eleanor was really raped that the prosecutor was brought on a false basis, and claimed there was "no evidence in the case against her".

During that time, I tried to explain to him, and his lawyer Harriet Wistrich, that Eleanor’s (own) legal team had tried to negotiate a plea bargain with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) one week before her trial (and shortly before her death), for the lessor offence of Wasting Police Time.

His lawyer, Ms. Wistrich, responded by accusing me of lying about the plea bargain, saying that I had made it up.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the evidence to prove this.

However that has changed.

In May 2024, (ten years later), I contacted the prosecuting barrister from Eleanor’s trial with some unrelated questions about misuse of trial documents that had come to my attention. During our exchange, he confirmed that Eleanor’s solicitor had indeed asked whether the CPS would accept a guilty plea to the lesser charge of Wasting Police Time.

Click here to see the email regarding the guilty plea request.

This is important for two reasons: 

First, Harriet Wistrich, continues to assert very publicly, that I made this up. Even after providing her with a copy of the email, she continues to mislead the public, directly contradicting prosecuting counsel. (For context Ms Wistrich, was never involved with defending Ms de Freitas during the prosecution, she entered the picture much later, only after Eleanor's death, to assist Mr de Freitas launch his highly misleading publicity campaign).

Second, it raises a key question: did Eleanor’s own legal team believe her story? If they were confident in her version of events, why did they offer a plea to a lesser charge at all?

In his email, the prosecuting counsel also noted that the CPS rejected the plea bargain offer. However, he couldn’t say for certain whether the idea came from Eleanor herself or from her solicitor.