Man on sex offenders’ register for grabbing Tinder date’s breasts during sex has conviction quashed
A medical student who was placed on the sex offenders’ register after having consensual sex on a Tinder date has had his name cleared. The 37-year-old man was taken to court for grabbing his date’s breasts during sex.
Philip Queree met the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on the Tinder dating app and had what he called “rough” sex on their second date. He was later taken to court for grabbing her breasts too hard during sex.
The woman claimed that although the sex was consensual, she told Queree she did not want her boobs fondled. She said Queree used “excessive force.”
“I was in a lot of pain. I felt he had been rough with me,” the woman said during the trial
“I had never experienced anything like this in my life, I had never felt pain in my breasts during sexual intercourse.
“Having my breasts grabbed to me that is not normal behavior.”
As a result of her accusations, Queree’s future medical career was destroyed as he was placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
On Thursday, however, the ruling against Queree was quashed. Advocate David Steenson, who was representing the former medical student, said the appeal was based on insufficient evidence in the original case, and that Magistrate Bridget Shaw should not have reached the decision she did.
“Her complaints to the defendant did not amount to a complete prohibition of touching her breasts,” Steenson said. “She was demanding he was more gentle with her not that he wouldn’t touch her breasts at all.”
Steenson also said the indecent assault charge was inappropriate for the case, and his client should have been charged with either common assault or grave and criminal assault instead.
Prosecution representative Crown Advocate Conrad Yates told the court that Magistrate Shaw’s ruling was not a “snap” decision, but one that exercised “careful reasoned judgment.”
“The important issue is not whether the injuries were caused before consent was withdrawn, but whether consent was indeed withdrawn and if the defendant continued to grab her breasts in that knowledge,” Yates said.
The prosecution argued that the assault was in fact indecent, as they concerned a sexual part of the woman’s body, and that the sex had been consensual yet conditional, “to the extent that she told him not to grab her breasts.” He added that the woman was “willing to carry on if he didn't touch her breasts.”
When the judgment was returned, Bailiff Sir William Bailhache said that the court was satisfied that the 'Magistrate went wrong in a material way” and Queree’s conviction was set aside.
