Rape case doctor cleared

7:08pm Friday 15th December 2006

A doctor accused of raping two teachers walked free from court after being cleared by a jury.

Mark Rance, who hopes to be a plastic surgeon, was acquitted after a week-long trial at Lewes Crown Court.

The 31-year-old nodded his head as the jury of eight women and four men returned their unanimous verdicts after deliberating for four hours but he showed no other emotion.

When Judge Richard Brown told Dr Rance "you are free to go" he immediately left the dock and rushed out of the building.

The doctor, of Bernard Road, Worthing, who faced years in jail and the end of his medical career if he had been convicted, refused to comment as he left.

Members of his family, who had supported him in the public gallery every day, also declined to comment.

During the trial, the court was told how the doctor's life had been affected by the allegation. At the time he was doing a research fellowship at the McIndoe Surgical Centre, which specialises in plastic and cosmetic surgery, based at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead.

He was two weeks away from completing his final membership of the Royal College of Surgeons but lost his job because of the rape allegations and has been working in a cafe.

The court heard that when he was arrested, the doctor, who comes from a close-knit family, broke down crying and told police: "In both cases the women were looking at me in the eyes as I made love to them."

The doctor was accused of raping the women, both in their mid-twenties, at their flat in Brighton in September last year.

The jury heard he met the women at the Karma bar, at Brighton Marina, where the doctor and one of his two brothers kept a speedboat.

He said both women willingly had sex with him after they returned to the flat in the early hours of the morning.

The women, who both said they were drunk, claimed in court he raped them one after another while they were asleep.

Dr Rance told the jury the women were lying and may have been falsely accusing him of rape because they were upset when they found out he had sex with both of them.

He said: "I had consensual sex with both of them and I think they felt rather cheated because it was behind each other's back. I do regret that but it was not rape."

He told the court the first woman asked him to stop having sex with her, which he did.

She asked him to leave. He then knocked on her flatmate's door to ask for a cuddle.

He told the jury the second woman willingly had sex but then also asked him to stop.

He said she told him: "I cannot believe I have let you have sex with me. I've got a boyfriend."

Editor's Choice