Welsh swimmer Otto Putland (pictured outside Cardiff Crown Court last week) has been cleared of raping a 19-year-old woman after she had consensual sex with a friend

A Commonwealth Games swimmer cleared of raping a woman who had just had sex with his friend has told of the 'horrendous ordeal' his family has been through over the past 18 months.

Welsh athlete Otto Putland, 24, was accused of raping the 19-year-old after she had consensual sex with his Team GB swimmer friend Ieuan Lloyd.

But a jury took just two hours to unanimously clear Mr Putland of rape following a five day trial.

It was the second time the swimmer has faced trial accused of the crime over this incident, with a jury unable to reach a verdict last September, prompting a retrial.

In a statement read out after the case's conclusion, Mr Putland said: 'I am obviously very relieved by the verdict and very glad to have been vindicated but I can't say I am elated.

'This has been going on for 18 months and the experience has been too horrendous, not just for me, but my family and especially for my mum.

'I have been very lucky to have such a loving and supportive family and good friends and I am sorry for what they have been through.

'I hope now we can all rebuild our lives and try to move forward.

'I hope you will give us the chance to do that in privacy.'

Cardiff Crown Court heard the woman had sex with two-time Olympian Mr Lloyd after going back to his home in Cardiff.

But Putland - who swam for Wales in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow - then entered the room after and had sex with the woman.

The alleged victim told police Mr Putland had raped her - but he insisted the sex was consensual.

The trial heard Mr Putland started having sex with the woman after getting on to the bed with her but stopped when she said she needed to use the bathroom.

Putland represented Wales at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where he competed in freestyle, backstroke and medley events

The Welsh swimmer, 24, was accused of raping the 19-year-old after she had consensual sex with his Team GB swimmer friend Ieuan Lloyd (pictured)

The woman said she called her friend from the bathroom, saying she needed to leave and the next thing she remembered was hearing her phone ring and being back in the bed with Mr Putland inside her again.

'A horrendous 18 months': Swimmer cleared at second trial Mr Putland previously faced trial for the same offence in September 2017. The facts of the case heard by the jury were the same, but a second trial was needed after they failed to reach a verdict. The first trial heard the allegations were not reported to police until July 2016 - 16 months after the incident, because the woman was 'upset and annoyed with herself'. She told the jury she had been 'abandoned' by Mr Lloyd and 'passed around' by the pair. But the defence said texts she claimed to have sent to friends were never found and argued witness statements from were contradictory. The CPS decided to proceed with a second trial after being given seven days to come to a decision by the judge. Advertisement

Jurors were told that incident had originally been charged as a second count of rape but that another jury had found Mr Putland not guilty of that offence.

Mr Putland, of Dinedor, Herefordshire, denied rape and told the jury the woman had been 'flirtatious and happy'.

He said: 'She was fine until shortly afterwards and she said something along the lines of 'I feel like I have been passed around' or something like that.

'I said we hadn't passed her around.'

In her closing speech, Janet McDonald said the woman did not have a strong or assertive personality but had been 'credible, consistent and clear' in her account of what had happened.

She said the woman had 'no motive for putting herself through a trial once let alone twice'.

'The only motive is to see the truth acknowledged and that truth is that she was raped,' she said.

In his closing speech, Christopher Rees, for the defence, reminded jurors this was not a 'court of morals'.

He said: 'Bad sex is not rape. Sex after one party has persuaded the other to have sex consensually is not rape. Regretted sex is not rape.'

The Welsh swimmer (pictured at the Commonwealth Games 2014 in Glasgow) was accused of having non-consensual sex with the teenager after she slept with his friend Ieuan Lloyd

Commonwealth Games swimmer Otto Putland has been cleared of raping woman who had just had sex with his friend

Mr Rees said there had been 'glaring inconsistencies' in what the woman told people at various times about the night.

'She had the opportunity to say 'no' and she did not say anything,' he said.

'She did not stop it. She did not call out to Ieuan Lloyd. She did not call out to anyone at all. From that you can infer that she did consent, or may have consented.'

Mr Putland represented Wales at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where he competed in freestyle, backstroke and medley events.

He was arrested in November 2016, 16 months after the alleged incident, which formed a key part of the defence argument in the previous trial.