An innocent banker who was wrongly accused of rape had to wait more than two months to be told by police he had been cleared of the charges against him.

Paul Faulkner, 46, from Hertfordshire, was left suicidal due to stress after a partner made false allegations against him when they broke up in May 2016.

Despite having messages sent over WhatsApp from the woman to Mr Faulkner saying she wanted 'revenge', it took the CPS nearly two years to clear his name.

It then took police a further two months to inform him he had been cleared of all the charges.

These are some of the menacing texts send to Paul Faulkner by a woman who falsely accused him of rape and other offences. He has spoken out about how long it took to investigate

Speaking today, he told The Sun Online: 'I'd shown them the evidence, I'd shown them the texts and shown how I was innocent.

'But instead they destroy my life, I lose my job and now I realise that they even knew I was innocent but could not be bothered to tell me.'

It comes after damning revelations published yesterday which found nearly 50 rape cases had collapsed due to withheld evidence.

Mr Faulker was branded a 'reptuational' risk and lost his £100,000-a-year job when police raided his home and arrested him on suspicion of assault, actual bodily harm, sexual assault and coercive control in August 2016.

He was on bail without charged but was finally informed by Hertfordshire Police on December 21 last year - 70 weeks after first being arrested - that he had been cleared of rape.

But it was not until February this year that police told him all the charges against him had finally been dropped.

Mr Faulker took phone recording where he is heard telling an officer that he had been on police bail without charge, to where an officer can he heard saying: 'Oh God.'

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire Constabulary said: 'Mr Faulkner has made an official complaint to Hertfordshire Constabulary and while this is being reviewed it would be inappropriate to comment any further.'

The director of public prosecutions has pledged to apologise over failures in 47 rape and serious sexual offence cases where vital evidence was withheld from defence lawyers.

Alison Saunders was quizzed by MPs over the prosecutions that were stopped after issues were found with disclosure.

A national review was launched earlier this year after a number of rape cases collapsed in quick succession when it emerged that police and prosecutors had failed to pass key information to defence teams.

Paul Faulkner, 46, from Hertfordshire, was left suicidal due to stress after a partner made false allegations against him when they broke up in May 2016 (stock image)

On Tuesday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed that issues with disclosure had been identified in 47 of 3,637 cases in England and Wales that were reviewed between January and mid-February.

These included five where disclosure was the primary reason why the case had to be stopped.

Ms Saunders told the Justice Select Committee: 'I feel every single failure. It's not something that we want. We have been very clear about where our failings are. We will apologise for those.'