A student who apologised to a girl via text for raping her will walk free from court

Sherman Ip, a former UCL Physics student, allegedly forced a woman down onto his bed and raped her on 14th May 2013. The 25-year-old statistician is now set to walk free after a second jury failed to reach a verdict.

Ip told jurors at Southwark Crown Court that the woman “consented” and that everything seemed “normal” when they slept together at her parents’ house the next day.

His alleged victim then stated that she ran from Ip’s apartment in tears after he forcibly undressed and raped her; she sent him a private Facebook message directly after the event accusing him of “semi-rape.”

However, she did not press charges until October 2014, when Ip sent her a text reading: “I am really sorry for raping you.”

Ip claimed that he made the apology because he “would do anything to get back with her” and the text went on to say that he was “so sorry for emotionally abusing and manipulating” the woman into doing things which she “didn’t want to do.”

Ip told the court that the woman grew jealous when he revealed his relationship with another girl to her. They talked about this before having sex at her parents’ house the day after the alleged rape, and Ip stated that “she wanted to have sex” despite the events of the previous day.

Two juries have now failed to come to a verdict on a single charge of rape, and prosecutors are expected to make a decision within a week as to whether Ip will face a third trial.

Following his studies at UCL, Ip completed the first year of his Ph.D as a student on the Oxford Warwick Statistics Program, and is currently studying at Warwick University.