LONDON (AP) — British actor Micheal Ward was acquitted Friday of rape and other charges in a London court on allegations he sexually assaulted a woman in the back of a friend's Mercedes in 2023.
Ward, 28, who starred in the Netflix crime drama “Top Boy,” sobbed after a jury in Snaresbrook Crown Court found him not guilty of two counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration and one count of sexual assault.
Ward has appeared in films including “Blue Story,” “The Book of Clarence” and last year's American political satire “Eddington,” alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal.
In 2020, he won the Rising Star award at the British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTAs. He was nominated for an acting BAFTA for Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light” and for a BAFTA television award for the Steve McQueen-directed series “Small Axe.”
Ward had denied the charges and said he had “full faith” he’d be cleared of the charges. He testified at trial that he met the woman at a party and that they had consensual sex.
Defense lawyer Humzah Ilyas said Ward had put his life on hold for more than three years and was “looking forward to getting back to doing the work he loves.”
FILE - Micheal Ward arrives at the premiere of "Eddington", June 26, 2025, at the DGA Theater Complex in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
A weeklong preliminary hearing was nearing its conclusion Friday for the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Prosecutors aimed to show they have enough evidence against Tyler Robinson to proceed to a trial.
The 23-year-old Robinson decided not to testify in the hearing. He's charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 assassination of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. State District Judge Tony Graf didn't say when he would rule.
The hearing resumed Friday with Robinson’s lawyers calling a final witness in an attempt to raise doubts about the prosecution’s case. The defense previously challenged the reliability of ballistics tests on a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body and fought the release of a recorded interview with Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs, as well as chat room messages Robinson wrote on Discord.
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Caitlin Oliver, a forensic biologist at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is testifying about the DNA techniques used in the case.
Items tested for DNA include a towel and rifle found in a wooded area near the Utah Valley University campus after the shooting and a rotary tool that Tyler Robinson’s roommate told investigators the defendant used to engrave messages on bullets.
Prosecutors tried to preemptively strike Oliver’s testimony, saying the evidence is already overwhelming and devastating for the defense, but the judge wanted to hear it.
Defense attorney Richard Novak asked Oliver about industry recommendations for describing DNA results, ways DNA samples are extracted and different testing methods. Oliver said her lab uses “likelihood ratios” and doesn’t definitively conclude that a person’s DNA was on an object.
“So from a scientific standpoint, you couldn’t ... blast a headline in the media, ‘Mr. Robinson’s DNA found on this item,’?” Novak asked.
Correct, Oliver said.
Graf said after reviewing livestream recording that it’s clear the news media camera operator caught the issue first, about 14 seconds before the judge himself spotted it and asked that the exhibit be taken down.
“Compliance with court orders is essential in all proceedings,” Graf says, and protecting the constitutional rights of both defendant Tyler Robinson and Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk is “paramount.”
Transparency for the public is also important, Graf said.
Defense attorney Richard Novak wanted the judge to bar the news media camera from the courtroom for the rest of the preliminary hearing as well as for a Sept. 1 proceeding, when both sides will present final arguments over whether the case should go to trial.
But Graf said the camera can stay, as long as it doesn’t record video of any evidence presented. He later noted that the livestream’s audio can capture discussion about such evidence.
Typically, an announcement is made that an exhibit is going to be shown on the courtroom screen. That gives the camera operator a moment to redirect the camera or to wait a beat before focusing in, depending on what the judge has ordered.
But in this case, prosecutors showed the exhibit with no warning, news media attorney Michael Judd said.
Judd said the camera operator quickly realized what had happened and moved the camera away within about two seconds.
Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride agreed that the image should not have appeared on the livestream, but told the judge the text of the messages — if not the actual image — had already been made public in law enforcement documents.
Graf said he wants to review the livestream recording before deciding how to handle the violation.
Graf is taking a break to review livestream footage from Thursday, because a piece of evidence that was supposed to be kept from public view was briefly shown on camera.
The evidence — an image of written communication between Tyler Robinson and his then-roommate and romantic partner — has been published and is even able to be purchased as photographic prints, defense attorney Richard Novak told the judge. He said the publication violated Robinson’s fair-trial rights, and he wants the judge to issue sanctions, a kind of legal punishment.
The judge allowed prosecutors to display an image of the evidence on Thursday, but said it could only be shown to the courtroom gallery. Later, prosecutors put up a side-by-side comparison of that image with another photo, and the side-by-side view was briefly caught by the news media camera operator, who quickly panned away.
Tiani Shoemaker drove about an hour from her Salt Lake City home bearing gifts for Charlie Kirk’s mother and hoping for a seat in the courtroom. Security turned her away.
Shoemaker said she brought a hat decorated with the words, “love like a mother,” and a note expressing her condolences and admiration for Kathryn Kirk.
The note was to tell Kirk that “the whole world’s hurting because of the loss of your son,” Shoemaker said, adding that she wanted to be “a part of history.”
“This really is like the whole world is focused on little Provo, Utah right now,” she said.
Shoemaker said some of her friends and extended family members witnessed the shooting and were left traumatized. “They couldn’t even be in large crowds for a while. It’s really — it’s upsetting, you know?”
The judge said at the close of Thursday’s hearing that at the request of Kirk’s family, he would allow to be shown inside the courtroom an altered version of a campus surveillance video that prosecutors said shows Robinson crawling out to a rooftop “sniper’s perch” before shooting Kirk.
The unaltered video was previously shown. The altered version includes footage that zooms in on a figure that prosecutors said was Robinson and red marks that were added to the video.
Graf is again reminding attendees of his courtroom rules, including restrictions on electronic devices for many attendees.
Chris Palmer, Court Security Director at Utah State Courts, spoke outside the courthouse as people lined up again hoping for a spot in the courtroom. He warned them that people in the gallery should not make the parents of Charlie Kirk or Tyler Robinson feel uncomfortable by looking at them during the hearing.
“These people come here to get justice, and they don’t need to feel like they’re under a microscope from somebody sitting behind them or ahead of them,” Palmer said.
Joshua Carr of Provo, Utah, was among those in the gallery and said “People were pretty respectful.”
“I wasn’t seeing people turning their heads. Again, we have the — the public was there. We had the Robinson family in front of us, we had the Kirk family behind us.”
Billie Webb of Salt Lake City was among the people who slept outside the courthouse all night hoping to get one of the few public seats inside the hearing.
“I’ve tried to go every single day,” Webb said Thursday night. “Today I wasn’t able to get in once again. I did get in yesterday for the first time. I did get in yesterday for the first time and I am absolutely determined to be there tomorrow.”
“Showed up at 3 a.m. Today for this one. Still did not get in. I was 16th and there’s 14 spots. So I will be camping all night here today. Probably 12 hours. 9 p.m. to 9 a.m.,” she said.
Score. Friday morning, Webb got the pink wristband she needed for a spot inside.
People have been lining up early — sometimes sleeping outside the doors overnight — in hopes of getting a wristband for a seat in the courthouse this week. Only 14 wristbands are given out each day, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Chris Palmer, the court’s director of security, warned Thursday morning that tents and other camping supplies won’t be allowed as people seek a seat for the final day of the hearing Friday. He also warned against jumping in line or saving spots for someone else.
Earlier in the week, court security said it discovered some people had bought colored wristbands to try to sneak in.
One of Tyler Robinson’s attorneys, Michael Burt, tried to inject doubt into the prosecution’s case by challenging the reliability of ballistics tests on a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body.
Authorities sought to tie the fragment to the suspected murder weapon, but the results were inconclusive.
“Saying anything but inconclusive was inappropriate,” said Samantha Karner with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The defense earlier in the week had questioned the reliability of DNA evidence that investigators said linked Robinson to the scene. Experts say the science behind DNA testing is sound.
Robinson’s attorneys plan to have a second person from ATF testify Friday.
The prosecution ended its presentation Thursday afternoon.
After testimony in the preliminary hearing ends Friday, State District Judge Tony Graf will rule whether prosecutors have shown enough evidence to proceed to trial. But a decision from Graf won’t come immediately.
Attorneys on both sides say they’d like the benefit of seeing the court transcript of the preliminary hearing and want to submit written briefs before Graf weighs in.
That will take weeks to play out. Graf set oral arguments on the evidence presented in the preliminary hearing for Sept. 1.
Graf tends not to make immediate rulings.
Brandi Siciliani, right, and Billie Webb, second right, wait in line to get access to the limited public seating available at a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, in Provo, Utah, Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Judge Tony Graf speaks during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, Utah, Thursday, July 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Spenser Heaps, Pool)
Charlie Kirk's parents, Kathryn, left, and Robert Kirk leave the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, Utah, Thursday, July 9, 2026, after a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, watches a computer screen during testimony about comparison testing of bullets during a preliminary hearing at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, Utah, Thursday, July 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Spenser Heaps, Pool)
An image of a bullet casing engraved with the word "Catch!" is displayed during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, Utah, Thursday, July 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Spenser Heaps, Pool)
