The Los Angeles County District Attorney will not be pressing rape charges against 30-year-old British actor Ed Westwick, prosecutors confirmed Friday
Ed Westwick will not be prosecuted on rape charges, the Los Angeles County District Attorney confirmed Friday.
The 30-year-old Gossip Girl star has been accused of sexual assault by four women and the district attorney’s office decided to go forward with an investigation into three of the allegations in March.
In a memo released Friday, prosecutors said they were not able to collect enough evidence to pursue charges against Westwick.
Westwick’s lawyer Blair Berk told TMZ: ‘The evidence was clear from the start that each of the allegations made by these three women were absolutely untrue.
‘It is a shame there are those who prejudged this case and that it took over eight months for Ed to be officially cleared of all of these charges.
‘I hope that those who made such quick judgment here not knowing anything about the abundant evidence of innocence in this case will hesitate next time before they so publicly accuse someone who has committed no wrongdoing.’
Actress Kristina Cohen (left) and former actress Aurelie Wynn (right) were the first to come forward in November, both claiming that Westwick had raped them in 2014
Creative producer Rachel Eck (left) and stylist Haley Camille Freedman (right) have also come forward accusing Westwick of sexual assault
According to the memo, two of the women reportedly provided witnesses to help corroborate their accounts, including some who were outside the room where the alleged assaults took place.
Those two cases were declined by the prosecution due to insufficient evidence.
‘Those witnesses were not able to provide information that would enable the prosecution to prove either incident beyond a reasonable doubt,’ prosecutors wrote.
The DA’s office was unable to get in touch with the third victim, according to the memo, thus no charges could be filed.
The memo also revealed that some additional women made allegations of inappropriate touching, but that the incidents fell outside the statute of limitations.
The first allegations against Westwick surfaced in November, with actress Kristina Cohen and former actress Aurelie Wynn both claiming they were they were raped by the actor in 2014.
Cohen wrote in a Facebook post on November 6 that she was at Westwick’s house with her then-boyfriend Australian film producer Kaine Harling.
She said that she was sleeping in a bedroom when she woke up to find Westwick on top of her, and claims he proceeded to hold her down and rape her.
LAPD launched an investigation into Cohen’s claim after she filed an official report on November 7.
Soon after Wynn took to Facebook to write that Westwick raped her at the Glendower Estate in Los Angeles after a party.
‘I said ‘no’ and he pushed me face down and was powerless under his weight,’ Wynn wrote.
‘I was wearing a one piece bathing suit that he ripped. I was in complete shock.’
Westwick vehemently denied the both claims on Twitter, writing: ‘I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.’
He later wrote: ‘It is disheartening and sad to me that as a result of two unverified and provably untrue social media claims, there are some in this environment who could ever conclude I have had anything to do with such vile and horrific conduct.
‘I absolutely have not, and I am cooperating with the authorities so that they can clear my name as soon as possible.’
He has since deleted both of those posts.
Less than a week after the first two allegations Hollywood creative producer Rachel Eck revealed the star had allegedly pushed her down onto a bed and ‘aggressively groped’ her breasts at a hotel in Hollywood.
‘I shoved him off as quickly as I could and left. I have never felt so uncomfortable in a situation like that in my entire life,’ she told Buzzfeed.
Westwick has not commented on Eck’s allegation.
Freedman accused Westwick of rape in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com in March, claiming that the star invited her to his home in the summer of 2014
The most recent allegation came from Haley Camille Freedman, 23, who revealed in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com that she had allegedly been raped by Westwick.
The stylist said Westwick had a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character who switched from being ‘funny and cute’ to ‘aggressive, violent and intimidating,’ once they were alone.
She said she consented to having sex with the television heartthrob after being invited to his lavish Glendower Estate home following a night out in the summer of 2014.
According to court documents, the pair ‘went to Westwick’s bedroom, where they proceeded to have what began as consensual sexual intercourse.
‘However, during their first intercourse, Westwick became violent and aggressive, demanding that Freedman strangle him or slap his face and when Freedman declined, putting his hands around her neck and slapping her and strangling her against her will.’
Westwick also asked Freedman to spit on him during sex, it’s alleged, and when she refused, he would spit on her.
‘When their first intercourse ended, Freedman knew she never wanted to have sex with Westwick ever again and wanted to leave and go back to her car and life,’ the documents state.
The next morning Freedman asked Westwick to take her back to her car, which he said he would ‘eventually’, according to the legal documents.
First though, Westwick wanted more sex with Freedman, the papers state. Freedman declined but he persisted anyway.
The papers state that during one or more of their bouts of intercourse, Westwick said that he wanted to penetrate Freedman anally and she refused, firmly telling Westwick that she did not want that.
Westwick penetrated Freedman anally deeply with his fingers anyway, holding her down to do so over her protests.
‘Freedman became overwhelmed with confusion, fear and shock,’ the papers state. ‘She became distant, letting her mind leave her body while Westwick had his way with her physical self, hoping for it to end.’
Eventually, each session of intercourse from Westwick would end but when Freedman would ask to leave, Westwick would repeat that he would take her back to her car when he was ready, the papers state.
He became ‘scary and threatening’ the more Freedman insisted on leaving, raised his voice and was physically intimidating Freedman into obeying him.
Eventually, in the late afternoon or early evening of August 7, Westwick did drive her back to her friend’s home, where she had parked her car two days earlier – only to find that it had been towed and impounded.
The next day, feeling ‘traumatized and exhausted,’ according to the legal papers, Freedman made an appointment with her gynecologist who found, on examining her August 13, that she was ‘still physically bruised, bleeding and internally torn and infected in her genital area’.
‘Freedman had no intercourse or sexual contact with anyone else between being sexually assaulted by Westwick and the August 13 medical examination,’ legal papers state.
‘The physical damage and signs of rape on the August 13 medical report are from the encounter with Westwick,’ according to court documents.
Freedman also recounted the experience to a close friend and her close friend’s mother, but decided not to pursue legal action against the actor for fear of ruining her career.
It wasn’t until with the onset of the #MeToo movement and Cohen and Wynn both making public accusations against Westwick that Freedman felt she should finally speak out.
‘When some of this habitual rapist’s other victims came forward as part of 2017’s amplified #MeToo movement, Freedman decided that she might also,’ the legal documents state.
It is unclear which of the three women’s cases were investigated by the LACDA or which woman did not respond to communications from the office.
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for each of the alleged victims for comment.