Kato Harris, 38, stood trial in July 2016 over three counts of raping a 14-year-old student but was cleared almost immediately

A bungled rape investigation into an innocent teacher who was cleared by a jury in just 15 minutes cost £1million of public funds, it has been revealed.

Taxpayers were hit with the £936,000 bill, including £181,000 towards Kato Harris's legal costs.

Former geography teacher Mr Harris, 38, stood trial in July 2016 over three counts of raping a 14-year-old student during lunch breaks at a private London all-girls school.

The girl's legal team, Mishcon de Reya, also put severe pressure on the Metropolitan Police before Mr Harris had been charged, including threatening to sue if certain leads were not pursued, according to the Sun.

A letter from Alison Levitt, a partner at Mishcon, also urged the force to dismiss the officer leading the investigation.

However, an independent review ruled that the law firm were not 'inappropriately given access to information.'

In the aftermath of the trial friends said Mr Harris was ‘crushed by the stress’ and ‘emotionally beaten up’.

A letter from the Mishcon de Reya's boss, Alison Levitt, also urged the force to dismiss the officer leading the investigation

Giving evidence in court, Mr Harris said he was taking a drug for anxiety which caused loss of libido, and insisted it would have been ‘completely impossible’ for him to carry out the attacks.

The court heard how the door of the classroom where the rapes were alleged to have happened, had a glass panel, could not be locked from the inside and was in a corridor patrolled during lunchtime by teachers.

It also emerged during the trial that Sue Akers, a former deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard who worked as an investigator at Mishcon de Reya, had asked the police for access to court papers and ‘sought to give directions’ to officers about ‘what they should do’.

But there is no implication that the firm acted illegally.

Sue Akers, a former deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard who worked as an investigator at Mishcon de Reya, had asked the police for access to court papers and ‘sought to give directions’ to officers about ‘what they should do’.

Speaking this year, nearly a year after the trial, Mr Harris revealed how teaching, a careeer which had been a lifelong ambition, had turned his life into a nightmare.

‘I had to give up my dream because of a crime I didn’t commit,’ he said in April. ‘

'I am unemployed, living in a bedsit and will soon be on housing benefit. I am toxic.’

‘If I knew on the day I qualified what I know now, I would never have become a teacher. I will never work with children again – I will never put myself in that position of vulnerability.’