Reg Traviss tells of 'absolute relief' after being cleared of rape

 
Relief: Film director Reg Traviss outside his parents' pub
Emer Martin14 December 2012

Amy Winehouse’s former boyfriend Reg Traviss has spoken about his “absolute relief” at being cleared of rape.

He was out celebrating last night at his parents' central London pub.

Mr Traviss was acquitted by a jury at Southwark Crown Court yesterday of raping a woman twice at his Marylebone flat in the early hours of New Year’s Eve last year.

The verdict came after CCTV footage showed her walking freely and unaided with Mr Traviss to get in a taxi to his flat - despite her telling investigators she was so drunk she could not stand up.

Afterwards, the film director went to his parents’ pub, Inn 1888 in Devonshire Street, to celebrate with friends.

Dressed in a smart suit and red tie, the 35-year-old was hugged by staff and friends and ordered a straight whiskey.

He said: “I just feel relieved, absolutely relieved that it is over. I know why the legal system is how it is, but in reality, my experience is that it is faulty.

“With my case it was as if a train had started running and it had to go through all the various stages, it wouldn’t stop. No one is willing to put the brakes on it, regardless of whether they should or not.

“It will just keep going until finally you just get to the stage when you wonder why you are there.”

He was first arrested over the allegations of rape, by the 27-year-old woman - who had been a friend - in April this year.

He said: “The weird thing is that when the police showed me the allegations I didn’t feel any anger towards that girl, it was more that I felt sorry for her because I thought, “she’s nuts”, but now after everything over the past eight months I do feel angry, actually I am phenomenally angry towards her.

“I haven’t been able to face her about it. In fact the last time I saw her was that night. I don’t know why she did it.

“My life has been so-so over the last eight months. I have managed to keep working which has been very important for me but in other ways it has been on hold. I have been trying to look at things optimistically but it has been really hard.

“I’m due to begin shooting a film next year and I’m looking forward to getting that started.”

Mr Traviss was dating Winehouse when she died. Since then he has dated actress Sheridan Smith.

He said: “She (Sheridan) has been very supportive - during the time we were dating and now. She is a great friend.

“She was a real source of strength and help through this and she’s a great girl as well and she knows what she knows and says what she means. She’s pretty much from the heart and straight down the line.”

Asked if he could fall in love again, he said: “I suppose, I imagine I could, it’s a difficult question to answer because I wouldn’t want that to be confused with falling in love and someone replacing Amy because no, but to put it out there, that’s how I feel.”

Mr Traviss, who made the 2010 film Psychosis, featuring Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Charisma Carpenter and The Darkness singer Justin Hawkins, said his next project was a “big commercial film” due to come out next Christmas.

The court heard Mr Traviss had been with the woman and a friend at three bars in London on 30 December last year before going to his home.

The prosecution had alleged she twice fell asleep, to wake up with him raping her. He denied the allegations

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in