Mail On Sunday: Time to fight back

I had had enough.

Three weeks ago Mr de Freitas had accused me of rape.

I tried to make peace and explain that there had been "wires crossed" but his lawyers ignored me.

Then he had gone and made a report of harassment against me.

Fine then. I am going to the press and I am going to tell my side of the story. I am going to tell the truth and it's not going to paint a pretty picture.

I was so nervous when I met the reporter from the Mail on Sunday. I had never done a press interview before. The day before I had bought a suit especially for the occasion, for there would be photographer taking pictures of me for the article as well. I didn't really want my photo in the press but no photo = no interview.

We met at Soho Hotel in London where the Mail on Sunday had rented a suite, she turned on her tape recorder and I spoke for almost five hours non stop telling her my story. It was so nice for someone to listen to my side of the story. My lawyer was also there to show her the evidence.

When I got to the part about Eleanor being an escort she said "I know, the editor already knows." Wow, these newspapers are clever. But it was still very much under the radar in the press, no one was reporting on that aspect of the case.

My main goal was to clear my name, and for them to publish some of the Ann Summers CCTV. that would be amazing.

The following day I met the Mail on Sunday photographer and we went to Kensington Gardens to take some photos by the fountains. He was so nice to me, very understanding. I remember that day well. It was almost December but it was a beautiful Autumn day.

Everything was complete, the interview was done and the pictures taken. I had to wait just two days  and the whole world would know I was innocent.

The night before the article was due to come out I checked into a hotel. I didn't want to be at home in case reporters came round. They had come round to my flat (and also my office) before and it was really intimidating.

I had booked the presidential suite at this swanky hotel near the airport, all booked on air miles which i had yet to put to good use. The room had a separate living room and the most amazing bathroom with stand alone bather, steam room and shower.  I spent the entire evening in a  bathrobe lounging around ordering room service. It was so nice to finally unwind before the story came out. For the first time in weeks I was feeling relaxed.

In the morning millions of people around the country would be waking up to my story both in print and online.

At 9.59pm I received a text message. The story was live! A friend had just seen the story on the MailOnline website and it was at the very top of the webpage. I couldn't believe it.

I spoke to many people that evening, with each person congratulating me. The story explained that there was evidence to show that Eleanor was guilty and had in fact been leading a double life as an escort.

I slept like a log. I slept so well. Finally I was vindicated.

In the morning I felt normal again, after weeks of continuous stress. I couldn't wait to see the hard copy version in the Mail on Sunday.

This is a picture of me reading the Mail on Sunday article at the breakfast table of the hotel.

Reading the Mail on Sunday article at breakfast.

Death threat and more false harassment accusations made against me

Never have I been so stressed out in my entire life than the last couple of weeks.

I was so full of nervous energy, I could not stop moving. I was walking or running 15 miles per day.

I was a total wreck.

The blast of press occurred on the 6th and 7th of November, but in the age of Google it doesn't go away.

All of David de Freitas lies are online. People are quoting him from his Radio interview.

There are thousands upon thousands of comments on various web forums talking about how Eleanor is the victim, when in reality I am the victim not her.

I had just landed in Athens, Greece. I was not on holiday but had to go a for a business meeting the next day. The trip had already been cancelled due to my stress levels.

I got to my hotel room and my mobile rang. It was pretty late, around 10pm.

It was my stepmother. She explained that my father and her had received a lengthy letter from someone anonymous saying "he is a dead man walking" and threatening my family with rape and possible death.

Just what we needed. My stepmother reported it to the police as a precaution.

The next day after my business meeting the phone rang again. It was the Police. I was surprised at how quickly they had come back me regarding the death threat.

But no. It wasn't about the death threat. It was about me.

What???

Mr de Freitas had reported me for harassment.

What the hell was going on???

He had gone to the press saying that I had raped his daughter. In response to his press I had written him a single letter asking him to stop. This was not a case of harassment.

Here's the letter I wrote that he complained about:

QUOTE

From: Alexander Economou

Date: Thursday, 6 November 2014 at 21:04

To: David De Freitas

Subject: URGENT - CPS EVIDENCE RE ELEANOR DE FREITAS

Dear Mr De Freitas,

The CPS evidence is:

- 25 mins of CCTV of her and I in Ann Summers at 11:30am 24 December 2012. Captured on 6 cameras in full colour high res. Cameras shows us kissing, laughing and buying £340 of sex toys which we leave with. Four large carrier bags of sex toys.

- Forensically downloaded phones of 3rd parties which show her to have sent messages from my flat at 9am 24th December which say "I really like him" and "we had huge fun together"

- Forensically downloaded phone messages of 3rd parties which show her to have said on 25th December 2012 "I hate him right now" and "he won’t see me"

- A confession email to me on 3rd January saying "I am sorry for the trouble I have caused you" [referring to her lies]

- She had also made a false rape complaint against another man in similar circumstances which was part of the evidence.

- Half a dozen websites that show your daughter providing "massage services" from 2010, which I attach. This can be confirmed by forensically downloaded phone reports which contain messages that tell me "I am at the house of a madam". One hour of CCTV in Harrods (from 30 cameras in full colour) show her to be spending thousands of pounds in cash. She had wads of cash.

- Please note that there is currently an ongoing IPCC investigation into Police Misconduct with regards to them not investigating properly. This is still open and not concluded. I have communicated with the IPCC as recently as yesterday about this.

Please be aware that I am the victim of a very serious crime. Any press or statements that show the opposite of the facts or that name me will be taken very seriously and legal action will be taken. I will be meeting my lawyers first thing tomorrow.

If you make any further comment twisting the facts then I will say this: "Eleanor de Freitas and I went on a date. The following day I performed some internet searches and found out she was a prostitute. At 6:30pm on 24th December I told her I didn’t want to see her. She then got very upset. Between 24th December and 4th January she pleaded with me (and my friends) to see me again, I refused. She went to the police to make a false allegation of rape for revenge purposes. It also turns out she had done this in the past. I have 10 lever arch files of evidence to support this. The issue is not why did the CPS prosecute her, the question is why was she allowed to make two completely separate false allegations of rape and get away with it [the police] when there was overwhelming evidence against her".

Please pass this to your lawyers.

Kind regards,

Alexander

UNQUOTE

The death threat my family received.

Trying to make peace with David de Freitas but he and his lawyers ignore me

I never wanted to go to the press. I never wanted any attention or focus on me.

When David de Freitas went to the press I wrote him a letter warning him to stop. I asked him to stop and wrote to his lawyers.

I could have gone to the press and revealed the truth abut his daughter being a liar and a prostitute but I didn't. I gave him a chance to calm down and to stop spreading lies. It was in both our interests for the press to die down.

Unfortunately he and his lawyers weren't having any of it. All they had to do was to call it peace and we could both get on with our lives. But no.

I didn't even want to take legal action at this stage. Even though he had accused me of rape I was still willing to let to go... as long as he promised to stop making any further false accusations.

Here's is an email chain between me and his lawyer Harriet Wistrich. She never got back to me...

QUOTE

-----Original Message-----

From: Alexander Economou

Sent: 14 November 2014 17:37

To: Harriet Wistrich

Subject: Eleanor de Freitas case

Dear Harriet,

I was the prosecutor on this case. Your office gave me this email address. I called earlier.

I know the family hate me, but please could we have a dialogue? I think there's been some wires crossed and I would like to give you some info to help the media situation for us both. I can't help thinking they don't know the full picture. As the prosecutor I can tell you pretty much everything you want to know to fill in the gaps.

Can we have a telephone chat at some point? Would this be ok? My number is 07XXXXX.

Kind regards,

Alexander

====NEXT MESSAGE====

On 16 Nov 2014, at 10:35, Harriet Wistrich  wrote:

Dear Alex

Could you explain to me what you mean by "help the media situation fo us both"?

Thanks

Harriet

====NEXT MESSAGE====

On 16/11/2014, 12:45, Alexander Economou  wrote:

Hi Harriet,

And thank you for you reply, it is very much appreciated. Please if I could just give you some information.

The police are currently under investigation at the moment regarding a complaint I made in February 2013 (which they are re-investigating) and the IPCC are also investigating another complaint I made in July 2014.

I will forward you the IPCC letters now. I will also fwd you a letter from the CPS, just so you know that what the IPCC letter contains is true.

I sent a paralegal to visit the court on 24th January 2014. He took an attndence note which I will forward to you. You will see that it was the police who were refusing to co-operate with the CPS when it came to the unsued. What were the police hiding? A couple of years ago EDF had made a seperate false allegation of rape agaiant another man, and the police took no action that time. As a result she went on to falsely accuse me of rape. The police did not disclose this info when the CPS were considering taking over the case, they went on the evidence alone. It was only after the polcie had to hand over unused evidence that the CPS found out about this. That first report of rape was very obviously false (as per polcie documents) and the CPS were going to use that at trial.

When you look at the EBR attridges file you will see that EDF was trying to do a deal with the CPS to plead guilty to wasting polcie time and the CPS said no. The evidence was overwhelming. That morning she killed herself her lawyers told her to plead guilty. Kaim Todner had also told her to plead guilty.

The medical reports are extremely damning. They both call her a manipulative and sophisticated liar.

At the moment the press seems to think there is “no evidence” when I have in my possetion CCTV on 5 cameras showing EDF and I buying £340 sex toys for 25 minutes AFTER the alledged incidenct. As well as statements from 20 other people, 6 phone reports etc etc.

Right now I have been labelled a rapist by David De Freitas. I have to defend myself ok? I will be compelled to release the Ann Summers CCTV in due course as well as photos of all the sex toys which are official exhibits etc etc. Note the CCTV was collected by my defence lawyers so I can release it at any time and there are no legal issues.

In the Daily Mail David De Freitas says that I was “harssing” and sending him constant texts and voicemails. It couldn’t be firther from the truth, in fact I have a recording of the police, saying exactly the opposite! In that recording the polcie state EDF and the father were making a false harssment report to de-rail the private prosecution.

I will now fwd you a number of documents to show you what I am saying is true.

Kind regards,

Alexander

UNQUOTE

David de Freitas Press Campaign: A nuclear bomb explodes out of nowhere

I was sitting at my desk finishing up on some work when my lawyer (from the Private Prosecution) telephoned me in the early evening of 6 November 2014 and told me she had been contacted by the BBC. I hadn't spoken to her in a while. We had finished the litigation over six months ago.

I did a few searches online and found an article about my case in the Guardian Newspaper. It had been published at 720pm that day. It was at that moment that everything fell apart for me. My life has not been the same sine and that month was a terrible, terrible time where I was the subject of a huge amount of comment in the national press, in social media, and among my friends and acquaintances.

I contacted the prosecution witnesses and told them what was happening. We agreed not to speak to the press and preserve our privacy. We were all very concerned about our privacy. I also contact my father and colleagues from my work and told them not to speak to the press. I contacted on of my neighbours and also asked hi not to speak to anyone. One of my friends told me to look at Twitter and I saw one new Tweet after another popping up.

That night i did not sleep. Not even 20 minutes. I stayed completely awake all night long, reading the various tweets and monitoring the internet. I was very nervous about the BBC Radio 4 today program, I had no idea what was going to happen. At Around 730am I resumed contact with my lawyer. At 810 David de Freitas was on the radio and spoke for around 10 minutes.

David de Freitas speaks to the press on November 7th 2014

I listened to it live. I could not believe what I was hearing. He was saying that he daughter had been the victim of a rape and that there was no evidence that she had lied. What about the CCTV of her buying sex toys? What about the text messages of her apologising? What about the messages of her being angry at the breakup? What about all the other witnesses that she had told a different story to?

David de Freitas did not tell the press about any of the evidence. The press never reported any of that because they did not know about it. Mr de Freitas wanted to hide that, he wanted to hide the truth and he just brushed any suggestion that his daughter being guilty as a rape myth. David de Freitas was lying to the nation.

The Today Programme interview which was on BBC Radio 4 is one of the biggest breakfast radio shows in the UK. It is a very serious current affairs programme. He was lying to millions of people. people all over the country who now believed that Eleanor de Freitas was the victim of rape and had been wrongly prosecuted. Twitter and social media were going mad. The interview lasted for 10 minutes, it was one lie after another.

By 9am the entire country was talking about this case. Every news channel, every radio station was covering the story about the rape "victim" who had taken her own life.

The first article had been retweeted over 600 times. But there were many other articles coming up. People were discussing the case on TV, there were guest speakers from rape charities.

Even Bianca Jagger (who has 82,0000 follower on twitter) was tweeting about the case. She said: "Extraordinary testimony from David de Freitas about the CPS conduct in the case of his daughter Eleanor de Freitas".

By the afternoon the story was being covered by Sky News, BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Independent, Express, Metro, Sky, Huffington Post, The week, ITV, Evening Standard, London24, The Sun as well as being featured in many smaller blogs.

As soon as the Radio interview was finished the phone started to ring. It was friends who had either heard the Radio interview or had read about the story in other news.