Judge apologises to Ex on the Beach star James 'Jimmy' Moore as he is cleared of drug offences in Crown Court

The Ex On The Beach contestant from Blackpool, who was cleared earlier this year of sex offences involving a teenaged girl, thought all the cases against him had been dealt with.

But then, out of nowhere, the Crown Prosecution Service popped up with an additional one last month, accusing the 33-year-old of possessing the drug ketamine back in 2020.

This week however Judge Andrew Jefferies KC recorded a formal not guilty verdict after hearing the Crown would not be offering any evidence on that charge.

“I genuinely hope that now concludes Mr Moore’s case,” said the judge at Preston Crown Court.

“I’m sorry it’s been a mess. I’m sorry we didn’t pick up on the ketamine count and I hope that is now everything resolved.”

Mr Moore, a former joiner who rose to minor celebrity status by appearing in the MTV show, has faced a number of accusations in court since his time on TV and has been acquitted on all-but one – a charge of possessing cannabis for which he received an absolute discharge.

In February 2022 he was cleared of posting a revenge sex video of an ex-lover on the adult website Pornhub.

In March this year he was found not guilty on all counts by a jury at Preston Crown Court after he was accused of raping a teenaged girl, assaulting her, spying on her with CCTV cameras and engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour against her.

Following on from that he was due to face another trial in July on three counts of possessing indecent images of a child and one of distributing an indecent image of a child.

But that case was dropped at the 11th hour. In a short hearing at Burnley Crown Court no evidence was offered by the Crown and the case was dismissed.

A CPS spokesman explained: “A jury found the defendant not guilty after he was charged with serious offences including rape and coercive and controlling behaviour.

“We took the decision not to prosecute a number of other offences (indecent images) after important circumstances were established during the trial which significantly impacted our chance of securing a conviction.

“We encourage anyone who feels they have been the victim of a crime to report it to the police.”

Explaining the background to this week’s final acquittal, Judge Jefferies told the court that the victim in all the accusations had been the same woman.

“Mr Moore became famous for a period for a TV programme ‘Ex On The Beach.’ He was a rather attractive young, fit lad. He appeared on TV. He was contacted by the complainant asking him to go out with her.

“They communicated for a while. He wanted to be sure she was over 18. She confidently told him she was. And in that initial courting stage she sent him various images of herself.

“He later discovered she was 15 when she first contacted him. She didn’t present as a young 15-year-old, she was a very mature young lady. They formed a relationship, spent some time living together in his home as a couple.”

The judge said Mr Moore had suffered from a cocaine problem and the relationship began deteriorating.

“The jury found him not guilty on all counts. But that left the indecent images because she was 15.”

The dropping of those charges, said Judge Jefferies, was “in the public interest” and he had agreed with that.

A charge of possessing a quantity of cannabis, going back to 2020, was finally heard in court by Judge Jefferies and he handed down an absolute discharge on July 19 this year.

Almost a week later the Honorary Recorder of Preston, Judge Robert Altham, received a letter from the CPS saying they would not be offering any evidence on two counts – one of possessing cannabis and one of ketamine.

“It seems that (ketamine accusation) got lost in the mists of time,” said Judge Jefferies. And he told the prosecution: “No doubt you will offer no evidence. So I will record a not guilty verdict.”

Mr Moore was not in court to hear the formal not guilty announcement. Judge Jefferies said: “I’m not going to take any action about him not being here today. I am hoping that now concludes his case.”