South African prosecutors said yesterday that they would not be charging the son of Paul Boateng, the former Labour minister, after accusations of rape from a 17-year-old girl.
The National Prosecuting Authority said that it had decided not to take the case any farther because it had no “reasonable prospect of a successful prosecution”. The girl, from Johannesburg, claimed that she was raped twice by Benjamin Boateng, 21, on New Year’s Eve — first on a Cape Town beach and later in an alley outside a nightclub.
Mr Boateng was appointed British High Commissioner to South Africa by Tony Blair last year. Mr Blair is due to visit the country next month. Mr Boateng, who has a home in Cape Town, did not invoke his diplomatic immunity and his son is said to have co-operated fully with the police during the investigation. Police sources said that he had admitted having consensual sex with the girl.