Ricardo Prince

Ricardo Prince was convicted of the rape of Siobhan Berry. At the time she was 14 years old and he had married her grandmother. On appeal, it was shown that the victim’s application to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) contained significant features that did not appear in the account given to the police or to the jury. She claimed Prince held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her, that he raped her anally as well as vaginally and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the rape, and that she became pregnant and contracted STIs as a result of the rape.. Her medical recprds showed that she had been treated for STIs and had a pregnancy termination, but that both of these things occured months before the alleged rape. She said that the dicrepancies were a result of confusion, distress, and embarassment. The Court of Appeal found that the inconsistencies significantly damaged her credibility. At least part of her application to the CICA was false and in other respects it differed significantly from the evidence before the jury. Because of problems drawing any satisfactory influences from scientific evidence in the case, that evidence could not save the conviction, and it was found to be unsafe.