UK- Exclusive: Freed 'rapist' stabbed in street attack

5-10-2009 United Kingdom:

A MAN convicted of raping a teenager before being freed on appeal has been stabbed and bottled in a street attack.

Michael Dyer was left lying in a pool of blood after the assault.

He was freed from a five-year jail sentence in February after appeal judges ruled his trial was botched.

The 44-year-old had been found guilty of raping a drunken 15-year-old girl but claimed she consented.

A 22-year-old man was arrested by police less than an hour after last month's attack on Dyer and has appeared in court.

One insider said: "The neighbours called an ambulance for the guy. He was in some state.

"There was blood everywhere and he was rushed to hospital. He was kept in for a while because they were so worried about his injuries."

At the end of evidence at Dyer's July 2006 trial Lord Dawson told the jury all three closing speeches would be over within an hour. When defence counsel Geoff Forbes said he would speak for almost 60 minutes, the judge replied: "don't think so, Mr Forbes, it is a very short case. Just try and limit your remarks."

The jury took just 28 minutes to convict Dyer of raping the girl in a house in Knightswood, Glasgow, in August 2004.

Lord Dawson, who has since died, jailed him for five years.

Dyer appealed, claiming the judge's comment pressured the jury into thinking they had to return a quick verdict.

Lord Hamilton, the Lord Justice General, who heard the appeal with Lords Osborne and Mackay, agreed.

Dyer and his nephew had met the girl and her 16-year-old friend at a bus stop near Central Station and talked them into going to a party with them.

When they got to the house nobody else was there.

The court heard the girl, who had drunk 10 to 14 vodkas, was given ecstasy and cannabis by Dyer.

She did not report the incident for seven months claiming she was scared her mum would find out she had been out drinking.. ..News Source.. by Charles Lavery