Two men have walked free from court after a gang rape trial collapsed when a key prosecution witness changed her evidence and denied seeing several men sexually abusing her ten-year-old daughter.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday there was "insufficient credible evidence" to continue the trial against Neil Kendall and Ian Davidson, who were both accused of raping Dana Fowley, now 29, in a series of incidents in the late eighties and early nineties.
Last week Caroline Dunsmore told the High Court in Dunfermline that she had sat and watched television while Dana, pictured above, was gang-raped in the next room, and said that Kendall was one of the men involved.
Dunsmore, currently serving a 12-year prison term for her own abuse of her daughter, also described a series of alleged incidents where she said a man had sex with Dana, now aged 29, while she had sex with her husband, William King, now deceased, just feet away.
But under cross-examination, Dunsmore denied being present when sex occurred between Dana and other men. She told Mhairi Richards, QC, for Kendall, that Kendall had not had sex with Dana, and she had been "mistaken".
Advocate depute Joanna Cherry, QC, told judge Lady Stacey: "As a result of the change of evidence of Caroline Dunsmore, an essential Crown witness, the Crown is of the view that there is insufficient credible evidence to continue."
Lady Stacey told Kendall and Davidson: "The Crown has withdrawn the charges against you so I will acquit you."
Speaking outside court, Dana Fowley, who has waived her right to anonymity, claimed her mother had lied to the trial by changing her story midway through giving her evidence.
She said: "Caroline Dunsmore has abused me along with a string of paedophiles since the age of five.
"Even though she is doing a 12-year sentence she still, as the ringleader, protects her friends by lying in court."
Kendall, 44, of Citadel Place, Edinburgh, denied raping Dana while acting with others at Abernethy Caravan Park, Abernethy, Perthshire, between April 30 1990 and June 27 1990.
Davidson, 54, of Murrayburn Place, also Edinburgh, denied two charges of rape and two of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards the girl by having sex with Dunsmore in front of her, and forcing her to perform an oral sex act on him.
The alleged offences involving Davidson were alleged to have occurred between February 1987 and June 1994 at various addresses in Edinburgh.
The pair were acquitted of all charges.
In 2007 Morris Petch, Caroline Dunsmore and John O'Flaherty were jailed for their part in the abuse of Dana as she grew up.
