When Men Are Falsely Accused – The Alexander Economou Story
Twelve years ago, Alexander Economou met Eleanor de Freitas. He was 35, she was some 12 years younger, the same age difference as then Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. On the face of it, this was a match made in Heaven. He was handsome, a helicopter pilot and the scion of a wealthy Greek shipping family. She was stunningly attractive with, as one pundit put it, “breasts to die for”. She was also a prostitute, what is often alluded to as a high class prostitute, although in reality there is no such thing.
Economou didn’t realise this, of course, and with his background, such a relationship would have been a no-no. He found out only when after spending an exciting weekend together she exhibited some strange behaviour that he found first amusing then alarming. This led to him making a few inquiries, something in retrospect he should have done before. He was horrified by what he found, and perhaps fearing she might have given him some unspeakable disease, he phoned her and angrily broke off their budding relationship.
If he thought that was the end of the affair, he would soon have a rude awakening, because not only did she begin spreading rumours about him, she also went to the police and claimed to have been raped. He was arrested and questioned, deciding wisely to say nothing. He was then bailed pending further inquiries, which the police may or may not have made, but being a man of means and just as importantly a man not to be trifled with, he undertook his own investigation, which led to the uncovering of CCTV evidence of her shopping with him after the alleged rape totally unconcerned.
This led to the case being dropped, which for most men would have been the end of this sordid affair. Most men when falsely accused of rape prefer to put it behind them and move on with their lives. Nowadays of course, a good few of these false allegations end up on-line, and some men try with varying degrees of success to remove media reports to that effect, as I know from personal experience having maintained an on-line database of false rape allegations since 2016. I have redacted the names of several falsely accused men but will never delete an entry unless I no longer believe it to be false.
Very occasionally though, a falsely accused man will not let it go. In 1985, a married man in the Irish Republic who was falsely accused of raping a teenager sued successfully for defamation. In 2013, a blogger claimed to have been raped by a colonel in the American Army – in 1986! A jury awarded him $8.4 million though it remains to be seen how much of that sum he was able to recover.
Alexander Economou was not interested in a civil claim, he wanted his false accuser to serve hard time so brought a private prosecution. Three days before Eleanor de Freitas was due to stand trial, she hanged herself. This was of course a tragedy, but Eleanor de Freitas was an adult woman who made a conscious decision. She was also, as has become clear since, seriously not right in the head. In February 2012, she had accused another man of some sort of sexual impropriety, and had also accused her own parents of poisoning her.
All that should have been enough to bring this malicious and ultimately tragic affair to an end, but there was a lot more to come, none of it good.
I could go into more detail here, but not only has Alexander Economou set up a blog about his subsequent trials and the many lies spread about him by bad actors, in October he will be publishing a book. Many of these bad actors have been exposed for unrelated lies, including arguably the most corrupt lawyer in Britain, a woman who together with her lesbian lover has succeeded in freeing a number of highly dangerous women from prison and may well free others in the future. Further revelations about her and her ilk are doubtless forthcoming.