Jury finds Slowthai not-guilty of raping two women at house party

British rapper Slowthai has been found not guilty of raping two women at a house party in Oxford in September 2021.

The Northampton native, real name Tyron Frampton, and his co-accused, Alex Blake-Walker, faced three joint counts of rape. They were cleared by jurors at Oxford Crown court on Monday.

The pair had denied all the charges, stating the two women consented to all sexual activity.

Prosecutor Heather Stangoe said Frampton and Blake-Walker met a group of women before a show in Oxford and gave them VIP tickets, before the women later met them on the tour bus. Stangoe said that Frampton and Blake-Walker went to one of the women’s houses, and that the rapper said that there can be “No phones and no boys.”

Blake-Walker was accused of raping the first woman at the encouragement of Frampton, who was accused of raping the second woman while being similarly encouraged by Blake-Walker.

Stangoe said the women were “isolated from their friends”, then raped and sexually assaulted on the roof while the two accused high-fived, “discussed ‘tag teams’ and contemplated swapping the girls”.

Frampton told the court that the sexual activity between him and the second woman was consensual, and that he and Blake-Walker “fist-bumped”, denying that it was an act of encouragement.

Defending the rapper, Patrick Gibbs KC said there were numerous “problems” with the case, and said his client was not “everybody’s stereotype of a rapper”, but a “thoughtful” and “modest” man.

The allegations came to light in May 2023, with Slowthai subsequently being removed from the Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds festivals' lineups.