Ten years ago, Lord Boateng watched puffed with pride as his 17-year-old son starred in a Royal Court Theatre play called Credible Witness.
But yesterday that title must have seemed a bitter irony for the peer as his son faced a different stage over an altogether more sordid drama.
Today the Mail can reveal that this is not the first time that Benjamin Boateng has been accused of a serious sex attack. His conviction for sexual assault yesterday comes six years after he was accused of raping an 18-year-old woman on a Cape Town beach after a New Year’s Eve party in 2006.
The woman told police she felt strange and disorientated, “worse than drunk”, after Boateng allegedly spiked her drinks, plying her with beer and shots of spirits.
The alleged victim said she became unwell after meeting Boateng, then a 21-year-old student, at Cool Runnings nightclub. Her police statement said he invited her outside to get a takeaway at 1am. But she said he led her into a dark alley and raped her.
She and a friend then got a taxi to Camps Bay, and she claimed that Boateng raped her again while their friends had sex nearby.
The woman went to police the next day. Boateng, who had been spending the Christmas holiday in Cape Town, where his father has a home, vociferously denied the allegations. He claimed the woman approached his table at the nightclub uninvited and introduced herself.
Boateng said he offered her champagne and they started chatting but he did not spike her drinks. She then invited him to Camps Bay where they had consensual sex after she “came on” to him. Friends were yards away at the time and heard no shouts for help.
After an 18-day investigation, he was cleared and allowed to fly home.
The scandal was deeply disturbing for his lay preacher father, who was the British High Commissioner to South Africa. His term in the post was mired in controversy after his wife, Janet, a former Labour councillor, was accused of bullying by her domestic staff at residences in Cape Town and Pretoria.
She denied any wrongdoing but full details of the allegations, revealed following a Freedom of Information request, were never made public.
Perhaps tellingly, Lord Boateng never appeared at court during his son’s trial at Kingston Crown Court.
Icah Peart, QC, defending, asked the judge to grant bail, saying Boateng was “supported by his family who are local”. But it remains to be seen whether Lord Boateng will be there in court to see his shamed son jailed on November 15. - Daily Mail