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Agnes Reeves-Taylor previously worked as a lecturer and head of department at Coventry University
Torture charges against the ex wife of former Liberian president Charles Taylor have been dismissed at the Old Bailey.
Agnes Reeves-Taylor, 54, was charged in 2017 over a string of offences – some involving children – during the West African country’s civil war.
The university lecturer, from Dagenham in east London, denied wrongdoing and was due to stand trial in January.
But after a technical appeal, judge Mr Justice Sweeney dismissed all charges.
Ms Reeves-Taylor was due to face a trial for torture and conspiracy to torture relating to events alleged to have taken place in 1990, during Liberia’s bloody civil war.
Some 250,000 people died in the first of two conflicts and Charles Taylor is now serving a life sentence for war crimes.
However, Justice Sweeney ruled that the case against his former wife could no longer continue.
This was, he said, because of a lack of evidence that the Taylor regime had governmental control over the areas where Ms Taylor’s alleged crimes happened.
The unusual ruling was not a finding that she was not guilty – only that the case could no longer continue to a verdict.
This was a key test for conviction for torture in UK law – and it means Ms Reeves-Taylor must be released from remand in prison.
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