Men found not guilty of sexually assaulting teenager in cemetery

Two men accused of sexually assaulting a teenager in a Cornwall cemetery have been acquitted of all charges. Calvin Rosevear, 40, from Mullion, and Joe Skewes, 40, from Helston, denied multiple charges of sexual offenses against the woman, who was 19 at the time.

Following a seven-day trial at Truro Crown Court, both Rosevear and Skewes were found not guilty on all counts by a jury on Tuesday (July 2) after hours of deliberations. They have now been discharged.

The offenses were alleged to have taken place in St Michael’s Church in Helston in the early hours of July 9 last year. During the trial, it was heard how the applicant had been out that evening with friends from work.

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At around 2am, she said she started to feel sick and decided she needed to leave the pub she was in to get some fresh air. When she went out with one of her friends, she didn’t feel much better and began to feel physically ill before falling and breaking one of her nails.

There he first met Rosevear and Skewes. In evidence, Rosevear said the complainant came up to them and started talking to them and being “very flirtatious”. He then asked if she wanted to have a threesome with him and Skewes, to which she said she replied “absolutely”, before texting her friends to let them know where she was going.

The complainant alleged that both men claimed they knew her friends and would take her to a nearby house party. However, Rosevear and Skewes denied that this was the case.

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Rosevear said they all headed to St Michael’s Church for “a bit of privacy” as he said neither he nor Skewes lived nearby. When they got there, he said he and the complainant began kissing and “groping” before she helped him remove his shorts and removed his penis and gave him oral sex.

He described how this only lasted a few minutes before a couple they had never met walked past and asked them what was going on and if the woman was okay. Rosevear said: “She looked embarrassed and said it was fine. It was massively consensual, if it wasn’t I wouldn’t have done it.”

In a separate interview, Skewes told police that when they arrived in the churchyard, Rosevear went to lie down and the complainant began to perform oral sex on her. When she bent over, he said he climbed up behind her and put his fingers in her vagina and began touching her breasts.

He told police: “It was totally consensual, there was no doubt in my mind that he wanted to do this.”