A MAN says he is still in shock and feels emotionally shattered and unable to trust women after being falsely accused of rape.
And he is now warning other men to be careful when they go on a night out.
The 29-year-old, who does not want to be named, was arrested and his home was subjected to a rigorous police investigation after the incident.
The man had been on a night out in Swindon town centre last month when a woman approached him and started chatting to him.
He and the woman went back to his home in the town centre that night – but just over a week later, he could not believe it when police arrived at his front door to arrest him.
He said: “The night I went out I had just had a tax rebate and me and a friend went out for a drink. The woman came up to me in Lava Lounge and said ‘you don’t recognise me do you?’ “She started kissing me on the cheek and told me to come back to her house.”
He and the woman went back to his house after leaving the club on August 19.
She left the house at about 3am, told him to keep in touch, and he did not think about it again until police knocked on his door on August 28.
“They came to my house and turned it into a crime scene. The police kicked everyone out the house and I was arrested on suspicion of rape,” he said.
“I thought that was it. I literally felt like a puppet and she was pulling my strings. I thought I was going to prison.
“Until it happens to you you don’t realise how destructive it can be and how scared it can make you. When I was at the police station I felt like the female officers were looking at me with disgust.
“In the end, her statements didn’t add up. Her friends gave statements against her, too.
“It has totally changed things for me, it really has messed with me. I am not going out with the same attitude anymore. I won’t just go and meet someone and go home with them. I don’t trust women anymore.
“I’m not interested in going out now. I am just concentrating on my job. I just want to make young lads out there aware that they need to protect themselves a bit.
“I was lucky that the woman’s friends were willing to stick up for me. “I feel emotionally shattered.”
A spokesman for Wiltshire Police confirmed they arrested the man on August 28 following an allegation of rape.
Police investigated and decided to take no further action.
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