A shipping magnate’s son has been cleared of harassing the father of a woman who accused him of rape.

Alexander Economou was accused of harassing David de Freitas, whose 22-year-old daughter Eleanor killed herself days before she faced court on suspicion of making a false rape claim against the 37-year-old defendant.

Economou was accused of sending letters to De Freitas, emailing his solicitor and setting up a website on which he published CCTV of her buying sex aids at an Ann Summers store, sexual images and claims that Eleanor de Freitas was a prostitute.

District Judge Tan Ikran ruled at Westminster magistrates court that the defendant was not guilty, saying he accepted Economou had genuinely wanted to “put the record straight”.

He said: “I find that the defendant’s actions were calculated to counter the continuing incorrect assertions that the allegation of rape was true.”

Economou’s trial in May heard he was distressed at David de Freitas giving an interview to the Guardian about his daughter and criticising the CPS’s decision to prosecute her, despite him not being named as her alleged attacker.

It also heard claims Economou told David de Freitas to “shut up or face the consequences” if he was portrayed as anything but the victim of a very serious crime in his media campaign.

Eleanor de Freitas. Photograph: PA

Economou denied it was meant to intimidate or harass David de Freitas before of a BBC interview, but told the court it was to “get across strong evidence”.

Giving his judgment, Ikran said: “I find that the material that the defendant posted was upsetting, a grieving father was being drawn to information about his dead daughter which painted her as a callgirl and as a liar.

“That was surely distressing, even if all true. It was also embarrassing, not only in the uploading of the purchase of the sex aids bought but the fact she had been offering her services as a masseuse in the sex industry.

“On the other hand, David de Freitas in his campaigning in the media, was, as the prosecution themselves put it, ‘asserting that his daughter’s allegation of rape was true’. This, the defendant says, was causing harm to his reputation.”

He added: “The fact is that the defendant, having previously been wrongly accused, remained in the firing line and accused of rape again and again.

“I do not find that, taken as a whole, the defendant’s communications by email, or indeed the first delivered by courier, reach the threshold of oppressive and unreasonable.”

Economou nodded slowly to himself as the verdict was read.