Harassment Charge: First court appearance

I was dreading the press. I knew they would be at court.

My plan was wear casual clothing instead of wearing a suit. If I wore jeans and a casual jacket the press would probably not think I was a defendant. It might buy me 10 seconds by which time I'd already be in the court building. 

Unfortunately I was wrong.

I arrived at court and tried to sneakily walk into the entrance without them noticing, but they noticed all right.

In fact it was very awkward. There was a large queue to get into the building. I had to queue up and wait outside whilst they snapped away with their cameras over over 5 minutes. There even some guy taking a video of me. Once in the court building I would have been safe because you're not allowed to take photos in the court. But outside it was fair game.

Today was just a preliminary hearing to answer the charge of Harassment. In a few weeks a trial date would be set.

Here is how the press reported today's events:

QUOTE

Today Economou stood in the dock wearing stonewashed jeans, a blue check shirt and a navy jumper and spoke only to confirm his name, age and date of birth and to plead not guilty to one charge of harassing Mr de Freitas between November 5 2014 and October 2015.

He is alleged to have sent an email directly to Mr de Freitas - which his lawyer today claimed set out the evidence Mr Economou was intending to rely on in court - and a series of emails to him via his solicitor Harriet Wistrich.

He also uploaded voice recordings to YouTube, Vimeo and Liveleaks and maintained a website about the allegations against him.

The website is still online but the domain name has been changed.

As well as denying the charges, Economou claims they do not amount to criminal conduct and are defective as they are not particular enough.

His lawyer Gideon Cammerman said: 'The later selections of the alleged conduct do not amount to criminal conduct.

'The charges are insufficiently particular as of the criminal procedure rules.

'For those reasons it is said that the charge is defective.'

Economou was bailed on conditions that he does not to contact David de Freitas or Ms Wistrich, except in the presence or through solicitors, and not to publish anything about the case, save for in relation to the libel proceedings, until his next appearance at court.

In court, he and his lawyer Gideon Cammerman challenged the conditions by claiming it would prevent him from his right to rebut things said about him in the media.

Speaking directly to District Judge Elizabeth Roscoe when asked if he understood the bail conditions, Economou said: 'No, I don't understand.

'I have a website that says David de Freitas is going to trial for libel.

'It is very important that the website stays up as it says that I am suing him for libel.

'It explains very clearly for the people, my friends, acquaintances, new friends, that google me every day.

'It says that David de Freitas went to the press and said I was a rapist and I need to explain that I am not a rapist.'

District Judge Roscoe said the bail conditions would not force him to take down anything that was already in the public domain.

She said: 'If you were to take that material which is on a particular website and you were to then copy it and disseminate it on another website that would be publishing.'

She added: 'If you breach that you will be in breach of your bail.'

Mr Cammerman said that imposing a non-contact condition would not be fair as Mr de Freitas's lawyers had themselves requested face-to-face meetings with Mr Economou.

He added: 'Of course there was ongoing contact between Mr Economou and Mr de Freitas about his interviews with the national media and what was in them.'

But Judge Roscoe said that the condition would not prevent him from attending the required legal meetings in the presence of solicitors.

The court is looking for a date to have a one hour preliminary hearing to decide whether the charges need to be further particularised and whether some parts do not amount to criminal conduct.

A trial date will then be set. The libel trial is set to run for ten days from 13 June 2016.

UNQUOTE

First appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court

Charged with Harassment - for protesting my innocence.

I couldn't believe it. The CPS had just made a press statement saying that I was charged with harassment. It was all over the news. All over the national press websites.

It was a disaster.

I only found out 10 minutes ago from my own lawyers, and didn't have time to tell anyone or refute the allegations.

What are my girlfriend's parents going to think about all this?

Shit.

The CPS Press Release states:

Alexander Economou charged with harassment

A CPS spokesperson said:

“The CPS has today charged Alexander Economou with harassment of David de Freitas.

“Mr Economou will appear before Westminster Magistrates on 11 January 2016. After carefully considering all of the evidence the CPS has decided that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and it is in the public interest to charge Mr Economou. It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings."

Additional information

Full details of the charge:

Between 5 November 2014 and 20 October 2015 Alexander Economou pursued a course of conduct which amounted to the harassment of David de Freitas and which he knew or ought to have known amounted to the harassment of David de Freitas in that he

(a) delivered or caused to be delivered a letter dated 6 November 2014 to the home of David de Freitas;

(b) sent a series of emails to the solicitor acting for David de Freitas;

(c) uploaded various recordings and comments onto websites such as YouTube, vimeo.com and liveleaks.com,

and

(d) set up and maintained a website with the domain name eleanordefreitas.com.

BBC apologises for airing Lisa Longstaff’s false rape claims live on TV.

And the saga continues.

A few days ago I was contacted by a member of the public who had been watching BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme.

They told me that one of the guests had accused me of raping Eleanor de Freitas - live on TV.

The guest was someone called Lisa Longstaff. A radical feminist who founded the charity Women Against Rape.

Quite frankly I am becoming sick to death of these rape charities. They pass themselves off as do gooders but they are in fact groups of angry women who want to blame everyone and everything for their misfortunes. When you show them evidence they throw it in the bin, they just want to blame and shame innocent victims like me.

I had already written to Women Against Rape before and even given them a copy of some of the evidence but they don't care. They continue to accuse me of rape regardless. They think they are somehow immune.

I complained to the BBC and they posted the following apology:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/zxxT8l0w4WdBxMzPCMV2gf/programme-update-an-apology

Libel Proceedings: Claim Issued

Three months ago we wrote the letter before action to Mr de Freitas lawyer. It was in response to his repeated libels on Radio, TV and in Newspapers.

The final straw was when he contradicted the Director of Public Prosecutions statement in December. By then i had had enough, That was the 7th time he had libelled me.

In late February his legal team had written back a letter in response denying everything and saying he would make a counter claim for harassment. The supposed harassment was for letters telling him to shut up and stop lying, and for a website that I created in January, see my January 1st post.

It was war. He was going to do everything in his power to make life difficult. All he needed to do was to put he hands in the air and say "I got it wrong" and promise never to go to go to press again and that would be it.

As per the usual course of action I issued the proceedings. That is we issued a claim in the High Court. We would wait for his lawyers to file a defence and in a years time we would have a trial. A judge would decide who was right and who was wrong and that would the end of it.

The last week had also been very press intense week. Today, on March the 17th it was Eleanor de Freitas inquest, which had been adjourned after her father went to the press. It was supposed to have happened in November, but got delayed for four months. The conclusion of the inquest death by suicide.

Mr de Freitas was not satisfied with that ruling. He wanted the coroner to release the CPS file against his daughter and to have an article 2 inquest or a jury inquest.

If that happened it would be a nightmare, because he would effectively put me on trial. He would take the evidence and twist it all around, and try to make me look guilty of contributing to his daughters death.

This explained why this wasn't the end of his press campaign. He would remain proactive and would continue speaking out.

Anyway we have issued libel proceedings and de Freitas was being more careful now, so that was a positive.

We shall see what the defence lawyers say in their defence, in two months time.

Otherwise it's my birthday in a few days time and there's a solar eclipse that day, so that's a good sign.

I'm feeling positive.

Truth Exposed: I publish the evidence online

It was clear that Mr de Freitas was never going to stop going to the press. He was going to keep publishing lies about me.

I spent new years eve 2014/15 on my own. I had a little dinner at a friends house and then around 1030 pm I went back home. I didn't feel like celebrating, it had been a hard couple of months. I just wanted to be peacefully at home with my hot chocolate in front of my gas fire place and TV.

I got a pen and paper and I decided what I wanted out of the year ahead.

I decided to do two things:

1. I was going to create a website that published the CCTV, text messages, escort images and other information to show the truth in the situation.

2. To sue Mr de Freitas for libel and get a gagging order to prevent him repeating his lies. If he wanted to to call it a truce and stop lying then I would stop my action. Otherwise this was going to trial.

The following day, I went to my office and I set up the website. I'm ok with websites, so it didn't take me too long to create.  I uploaded the CCTV, the text message evidence, the pictures of sex toys and images from the tantric temple. My website also had accompanying text to explain the context and to give some form of narrative.

As far as I was concerned this was freedom of speech. Mr de Freitas had lied and this was the truth. Everything that i was saying was the truth and no one could show the contrary.

I also uploaded the CCTV to Youtube and some other video sites to get maximum coverage.

If you've been accused of rape in the media then trust me, you would do the same to prove your innocence. Here's a little screen shot of the front page of the website:

More Lies by David de Freitas

The Director of Public Prosecutions had only just made her statement confirming that the evidence was strong in the case case against Eleanor, and thus vindicating me, when Mr de Freitas struck back.

He had contacted the Daily Telegraph to publish a press release and also wrote and article in The Guardian authored by himself stating that what the DPP had said was wrong and that the evidence in the case against his daughter was based on "rape myths".

This was meant to be a day if vindication for me, the day when the news was focused on the DPP's statement. But no. Mr de Freitas stole that moment from me.

He was saying his daughter was victim and that I was guilty, all over again.

It was an ambush designed to confuse the public.

Once again I was under attack.

But this time I was going to take legal action. This time I was going to sue him for libel.

I had been amazingly patient over the last 5 weeks, but this was the final straw. There are only a certain amount of times that one can put up with being accused of being a rapist and this was the 7th time he had done so.

I called up my lawyer. We were going to take de Freitas to court.

DPP: Evidence, including texts & CCTV, contradicted Ms. de Freitas's account.

Ever since the press had come out over a month ago I had been waiting for the DPP to make a statement about the case. But no one knew what she was going to speak out, last of all me.

She had been heavily criticised by Mr de Freitas in the press, so it was expected she would confirm that the evidence in the case against Eleanor was strong.

What she had to say would be really important. The DPP is effectively in charge of all the criminal cases in England and Wales. That's everything from murder to speeding fines. Her word would be taken seriously. If she said there was evidence to show that I was innocent then that would be amazing. 

Finally on the 9th December 2014 the DPP, Alison Saunders made a public statement

Saunders emphasised that there was strong evidence against Eleanor de Freitas, including text messages and CCTV footage that directly contradicted her account of the alleged rape. The decision to prosecute was explicitly based on this concrete evidence rather than stereotypes about how victims of sexual assault should behave.

She also confirmed that the CPS thoroughly considered Eleanor de Freitas' mental health before deciding to prosecute. A detailed psychiatric report, commissioned by Ms de Freitas' own legal team, concluded she was aware of the implications of her actions and was mentally fit to stand trial. No additional medical evidence was subsequently provided that would have justified discontinuing the prosecution.

And explained that it was highly unusual to prosecute without initial police support, as happened here. The police had not carried out their own investigation into the allegation of perverting justice and were not able to form a view on the evidence.

 

Below: Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions

 

Mail On Sunday: Time to fight back

I had had enough.

Three weeks ago Mr de Freitas had accused me of rape.

I tried to make peace and explain that there had been "wires crossed" but his lawyers ignored me.

Then he had gone and made a report of harassment against me.

Fine then. I am going to the press and I am going to tell my side of the story. I am going to tell the truth and it's not going to paint a pretty picture.

I was so nervous when I met the reporter from the Mail on Sunday. I had never done a press interview before. The day before I had bought a suit especially for the occasion, for there would be photographer taking pictures of me for the article as well. I didn't really want my photo in the press but no photo = no interview.

We met at Soho Hotel in London where the Mail on Sunday had rented a suite, she turned on her tape recorder and I spoke for almost five hours non stop telling her my story. It was so nice for someone to listen to my side of the story. My lawyer was also there to show her the evidence.

When I got to the part about Eleanor being an escort she said "I know, the editor already knows." Wow, these newspapers are clever. But it was still very much under the radar in the press, no one was reporting on that aspect of the case.

My main goal was to clear my name, and for them to publish some of the Ann Summers CCTV. that would be amazing.

The following day I met the Mail on Sunday photographer and we went to Kensington Gardens to take some photos by the fountains. He was so nice to me, very understanding. I remember that day well. It was almost December but it was a beautiful Autumn day.

Everything was complete, the interview was done and the pictures taken. I had to wait just two days  and the whole world would know I was innocent.

The night before the article was due to come out I checked into a hotel. I didn't want to be at home in case reporters came round. They had come round to my flat (and also my office) before and it was really intimidating.

I had booked the presidential suite at this swanky hotel near the airport, all booked on air miles which i had yet to put to good use. The room had a separate living room and the most amazing bathroom with stand alone bather, steam room and shower.  I spent the entire evening in a  bathrobe lounging around ordering room service. It was so nice to finally unwind before the story came out. For the first time in weeks I was feeling relaxed.

In the morning millions of people around the country would be waking up to my story both in print and online.

At 9.59pm I received a text message. The story was live! A friend had just seen the story on the MailOnline website and it was at the very top of the webpage. I couldn't believe it.

I spoke to many people that evening, with each person congratulating me. The story explained that there was evidence to show that Eleanor was guilty and had in fact been leading a double life as an escort.

I slept like a log. I slept so well. Finally I was vindicated.

In the morning I felt normal again, after weeks of continuous stress. I couldn't wait to see the hard copy version in the Mail on Sunday.

This is a picture of me reading the Mail on Sunday article at the breakfast table of the hotel.

Reading the Mail on Sunday article at breakfast.

Trying to make peace with David de Freitas but he and his lawyers ignore me

I never wanted to go to the press. I never wanted any attention or focus on me.

When David de Freitas went to the press I wrote him a letter warning him to stop. I asked him to stop and wrote to his lawyers.

I could have gone to the press and revealed the truth abut his daughter being a liar and a prostitute but I didn't. I gave him a chance to calm down and to stop spreading lies. It was in both our interests for the press to die down.

Unfortunately he and his lawyers weren't having any of it. All they had to do was to call it peace and we could both get on with our lives. But no.

I didn't even want to take legal action at this stage. Even though he had accused me of rape I was still willing to let to go... as long as he promised to stop making any further false accusations.

Here's is an email chain between me and his lawyer Harriet Wistrich. She never got back to me...

QUOTE

-----Original Message-----

From: Alexander Economou

Sent: 14 November 2014 17:37

To: Harriet Wistrich

Subject: Eleanor de Freitas case

Dear Harriet,

I was the prosecutor on this case. Your office gave me this email address. I called earlier.

I know the family hate me, but please could we have a dialogue? I think there's been some wires crossed and I would like to give you some info to help the media situation for us both. I can't help thinking they don't know the full picture. As the prosecutor I can tell you pretty much everything you want to know to fill in the gaps.

Can we have a telephone chat at some point? Would this be ok? My number is 07XXXXX.

Kind regards,

Alexander

====NEXT MESSAGE====

On 16 Nov 2014, at 10:35, Harriet Wistrich  wrote:

Dear Alex

Could you explain to me what you mean by "help the media situation fo us both"?

Thanks

Harriet

====NEXT MESSAGE====

On 16/11/2014, 12:45, Alexander Economou  wrote:

Hi Harriet,

And thank you for you reply, it is very much appreciated. Please if I could just give you some information.

The police are currently under investigation at the moment regarding a complaint I made in February 2013 (which they are re-investigating) and the IPCC are also investigating another complaint I made in July 2014.

I will forward you the IPCC letters now. I will also fwd. you a letter from the CPS, just so you know that what the IPCC letter contains is true.

I sent a paralegal to visit the court on 24th January 2014. He took an attendance note which I will forward to you. You will see that it was the police who were refusing to co-operate with the CPS when it came to the unused. What were the police hiding? A couple of years ago EDF had made a separate false allegation of rape against another man, and the police took no action that time. As a result she went on to falsely accuse me of rape. The police did not disclose this info when the CPS were considering taking over the case, they went on the evidence alone. It was only after the police had to hand over unused evidence that the CPS found out about this. That first report of rape was very obviously false (as per police documents) and the CPS were going to use that at trial.

When you look at the EBR Attridges file you will see that EDF was trying to do a deal with the CPS to plead guilty to wasting police time and the CPS said no. The evidence was overwhelming. That morning she killed herself her lawyers told her to plead guilty. Kaim Todner had also told her to plead guilty.

The medical reports are extremely damning. They both call her a manipulative and sophisticated liar.

At the moment the press seems to think there is “no evidence” when I have in my possession CCTV on 5 cameras showing EDF and I buying £340 sex toys for 25 minutes AFTER the alleged incident. As well as statements from 20 other people, 6 phone reports etc etc.

Right now I have been labelled a rapist by David De Freitas. I have to defend myself ok? I will be compelled to release the Ann Summers CCTV in due course as well as photos of all the sex toys which are official exhibits etc etc. Note the CCTV was collected by my defence lawyers so I can release it at any time and there are no legal issues.

In the Daily Mail David De Freitas says that I was “harassing” and sending him constant texts and voicemails. It couldn’t be further from the truth, in fact I have a recording of the police, saying exactly the opposite! In that recording the police state EDF and the father were making a false harssment report to de-rail the private prosecution.

I will now fwd. you a number of documents to show you what I am saying is true.

Kind regards,

Alexander

UNQUOTE

David de Freitas Press Campaign: A nuclear bomb explodes out of nowhere

I was sitting at my desk finishing up on some work when my lawyer (from the Private Prosecution) telephoned me in the early evening of 6 November 2014 and told me she had been contacted by the BBC. I hadn't spoken to her in a while. We had finished the litigation over six months ago.

I did a few searches online and found an article about my case in the Guardian Newspaper. It had been published at 720pm that day. It was at that moment that everything fell apart for me. My life has not been the same sine and that month was a terrible, terrible time where I was the subject of a huge amount of comment in the national press, in social media, and among my friends and acquaintances.

I contacted the prosecution witnesses and told them what was happening. We agreed not to speak to the press and preserve our privacy. We were all very concerned about our privacy. I also contact my father and colleagues from my work and told them not to speak to the press. I contacted on of my neighbours and also asked hi not to speak to anyone. One of my friends told me to look at Twitter and I saw one new Tweet after another popping up.

That night i did not sleep. Not even 20 minutes. I stayed completely awake all night long, reading the various tweets and monitoring the internet. I was very nervous about the BBC Radio 4 today program, I had no idea what was going to happen. At Around 730am I resumed contact with my lawyer. At 810 David de Freitas was on the radio and spoke for around 10 minutes.

David de Freitas speaks to the press on November 7th 2014

I listened to it live. I could not believe what I was hearing. He was saying that he daughter had been the victim of a rape and that there was no evidence that she had lied. What about the CCTV of her buying sex toys? What about the text messages of her apologising? What about the messages of her being angry at the breakup? What about all the other witnesses that she had told a different story to?

David de Freitas did not tell the press about any of the evidence. The press never reported any of that because they did not know about it. Mr de Freitas wanted to hide that, he wanted to hide the truth and he just brushed any suggestion that his daughter being guilty as a rape myth. David de Freitas was lying to the nation.

The Today Programme interview which was on BBC Radio 4 is one of the biggest breakfast radio shows in the UK. It is a very serious current affairs programme. He was lying to millions of people. people all over the country who now believed that Eleanor de Freitas was the victim of rape and had been wrongly prosecuted. Twitter and social media were going mad. The interview lasted for 10 minutes, it was one lie after another.

By 9am the entire country was talking about this case. Every news channel, every radio station was covering the story about the rape "victim" who had taken her own life.

The first article had been retweeted over 600 times. But there were many other articles coming up. People were discussing the case on TV, there were guest speakers from rape charities.

Even Bianca Jagger (who has 82,0000 follower on twitter) was tweeting about the case. She said: "Extraordinary testimony from David de Freitas about the CPS conduct in the case of his daughter Eleanor de Freitas".

By the afternoon the story was being covered by Sky News, BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Independent, Express, Metro, Sky, Huffington Post, The week, ITV, Evening Standard, London24, The Sun as well as being featured in many smaller blogs.

As soon as the Radio interview was finished the phone started to ring. It was friends who had either heard the Radio interview or had read about the story in other news.

Miranda de Freitas (David de Freitas wife) starts harassing prosecution witnesses

When Eleanor died I could smell trouble was brewing on the horizon.

It had been about two months since her death and thankfully no media had clocked the death, it hadn't been reported and it was below the radar.

Whilst it was very sad and shocking that she had a died, it did cause me a bit of a dilema, that now I would be unable to prove my innocence. If this got to press then it would be more difficult for me to defend myself. If she was found guilty at trial then it's quite easy to persuade people that you are innocent. You just say that she was found guilty of lying. So I was nervous of press. I was nervous her parents might start becoming angry and thats exactly what started happening.

In June and July her mother Miranda de Freitas started contacting witnesses and sending them threatening messages. The witnesses contacted police who attended her house and gave her a verbal warning but this wasn't the end of it, I could smell trouble on the horizon.

Little did I know that Eleanor's father,  David de Freitas was already planning his attack and to get his revenge, for he blamed me and the CPS for the death of his daughter.

In four months time he would drop a surprise atomic bomb of press that would almost end up killing me.