.JPG)
A wealthy financier yesterday sent his condolences to the family of the woman who killed herself after he launched a private prosecution against her because she had accused him of rape.
Alexander Economou, 35, said the death of Eleanor de Freitas, 23, was a ‘great loss’ as her father asked a coroner to investigate why the Crown pursued the case against his daughter.
Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders is personally overseeing an inquiry into lawyers’ decision to put the vulnerable young woman on trial.
Miss de Freitas, a brilliant former Durham University student who suffered from a psychiatric illness, told detectives that Mr Economou raped her just before Christmas 2012.
Police investigated her allegations but closed the case after concluding that gaps in the evidence meant they would not be able to secure a conviction.
Despite being told he would not face charges, Mr Economou paid for his own inquiry in an attempt to show he was innocent.
As part of the effort to clear his name, he assembled emails, text messages, details of phone calls and CCTV footage of him and Miss de Freitas together.
He then started a private prosecution against Miss de Freitas for perverting the course of justice by allegedly lying to police. The whole process is said to have cost him £200,000.
The Crown Prosecution Service took over the case but decided against using its powers to throw it out, leaving her frightened and devastated.
Bipolar disorder sufferer Miss de Freitas killed herself in April this year, three days before the start of her trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
Mr Economou’s father Angelo, 62, is a successful businessman of Greek origin who was born in Britain. He runs UK-registered firm Time and Tide Shipping, and lives in a £830,000 house in Chiddingfold, Surrey.
Mr Economou is the company secretary of his father’s firm and a former director of a helicopter training school. Companies House documents list his occupation as ‘financial analyst’.
