It was the story that shocked America – an 18-year-old girl brutally gang-raped at a University of Virginia fraternity house and then left to suffer the consequences without help from friends or professors.

But within days of A Rape on Campus being published in Rolling Stone magazine last November, the tale began to fall apart with huge holes unearthed in the testimony of 'Jackie', the woman whose claims formed the basis of the story.

Now, almost a year later, one of the students maligned in the article tells Daily Mail Online in an exclusive interview that he is still convinced 'something' did happen to the young woman who was once his friend.

He spoke despite Rolling Stone apologizing for getting their story so wrong and a police investigation which concluded there was no evidence to pursue,

Ryan Duffin, 21, a computer science major from Toana, VA, says that he believes to this day that some of what 'Jackie' had recounted to be true.

Duffin was dragged into the account of the gang rape in Rolling Stone as one of three friends 'Jackie' described she turned to after claiming she was violently assaulted by seven male students at a party at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity on the night of September 12.

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Quit: 'Jackie', seen in pictures from her social media account, has left UVA, sacrificing three years of college, in the wake of the storm created by her account of what she claimed was a brutal gang rape at a fraternity

Friends: Kathryn Hendley (left), Alex Stock (center) and Ryan Duffin (right) were dragged into the storm because the article claimed the three, who were 'Jackie's' friends, had not wanted her to report the 'rape'

Center of the storm: The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house where 'Jackie' claimed she was gang raped. The fraternity is now suing Rolling Stone for $25 million over the discredited article

'I think the best way to describe it would be that if I looked at all the facts as an outsider, the police saying they have suspended the case for lack of evidence... If I just looked at that objectively then no, I wouldn't believe her,' he told Daily Mail Online.

'But having had the experience of her telling us what happened, the way she has stuck to her guns despite what has come out since - that leaves doubt in my mind.

'I also think it's important to note that "Jackie" absolutely should not be characterized as a villain.'

In the aftermath of the scandal, Daily Mail Online can also reveal that 'Jackie,' who was due to graduate from UVA early next year, has left the school.

'JACKIE'S' DRAMATIC ACCOUNT 'There was a heavy person on top of her, spreading open her thighs, and another person kneeling on her hair, hands pinning down her arms, sharp shards digging into her back, and excited male voices rising all around her. 'When yet another hand clamped over her mouth, Jackie bit it, and the hand became a fist that punched her in the face. The men surrounding her began to laugh. Describing the moment she supposedly passed out from pain, it continued: 'Someone handed her classmate a beer bottle. Jackie stared at the young man, silently begging him not to go through with it. 'And as he shoved the bottle into her, Jackie fell into a stupor, mentally untethering from the brutal tableau, her mind leaving behind the bleeding body under assault on the floor.' From Rolling Stone Advertisement

She is now isolated from her college friends and has even lost touch with school friends in her home town, where she is believed to have spent much of the past year.

And the now 21-year-old has already been dragged into litigation - and faces being deposed over the contentious claims which she made in the pages of Rolling Stone.

The magazine is facing three separate lawsuits. One has been filed by the fraternity where the rape was alleged to have happened. It is seeking $25 million for damages to its reputation.

Three of the fraternity members are suing separately for undefined damages, and UVA's associate dean is also filed suit for $7.5 million.

The cases are slowly unfolding in court, but each of them carries the potential for 'Jackie' to be deposed and asked to give an account of events under oath for the first time.

She is already resisting handing over her emails and texts to Rolling Stone, the Roanoke Times reported.

In Rolling Stone, 'Jackie' claimed that she called Duffin and two other friends after escaping from the fraternity house at 3am and running into the street shoeless and with her 'face beaten' and dress 'splattered with blood'. Pseudonyms were used for the three friends in the magazine.

The article's author, Sabrina Erdely, claimed that after 'Jackie' reached out to the three friends - Duffin (called Randall in the article), Alex Stock ('Andy') and Kathryn Hendley (Cindy) - 'launched into a heated discussion about the social price of reporting Jackie's rape'.

Hendley allegedly said: 'She's gonna be the girl who cried "rape", and we'll never be allowed into any frat party again.'

All three challenged Rolling Stone's accuracy.

Duffin was never even contacted by the magazine to verify any of its information about his involvement.

He tells Daily Mail Online that he was 'confused' by the reported discussion about the 'social price' of speaking up that allegedly followed.

Particularly baffling was a footnote by Erdely in which she claimed to have contacted him for comment but that 'citing his loyalty to his own frat, [he] declined to be interviewed'.

That, says Duffin, was absolutely not the case.

Contentious: The Rolling Stone article which started the storm. It has now been apologized for and investigated by Columbia University's school of journalism

Suing: Fraternity members Stephen Hadford (left) and George Elias (right) have brought their own legal case. 'Jackie' could be deposed in each case and is already fighting attempts to seize her emails and texts

'The article was written to give the impression that we had been contacted prior to its publication when, in fact, we hadn't.'

Duffin, has now lost contact with 'Jackie'. 'I haven't spoken to her since January,' he said.

'After January, her lawyers advised her not to speak to us. I don't know what she's up to now but I hope she is doing well.'

In her home town in northern Virginia, which Daily Mail Online is not identifying, 'Jackie' has been spending time with her family at their smart detached home in an affluent housing development.

Her father declined to comment on her progress, and former high school friends say they have lost touch with her. Other family members elsewhere in the United States declined to comment.

Last year her father spoke only once - to Daily Mail Online - and said he believed that his daughter.

'She told the truth. She did not know the details [of the fraternity] because she had been there [the college] for two weeks and she was 18 years old,' he said.

Instead he directed his anger at Rolling Stone, saying: ‘[The media] crushed my daughter when she is an innocent girl. [The media] crucified her.'

Because of the explosive nature of the article, his daughter became the focus of the media.

And the piece seemed so credible, university authorities ordered a suspension of Greek life at UVA. But after widespread examination of Rolling Stone's account it quickly became apparent that its version of events had significant inaccuracies.

'Jackie' said she recognized one of the fraternity members as a worker at the UVA leisure center. But that element of the story fell apart when the frat proved none of the brothers were employed there.

Alarmingly, the fraternity did not have even a party on that date. Then even more damaging, the three friends went public with their concerns.

Affected: In the immediate aftermath of the story being published, the fraternity house was vandalized and all Greek life was suspended by the university. The fraternity is now suing and demanding 'Jackie's' texts and emails

Personally sued: This is one of the three cases being brought against Rolling Stone and the article's author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely. She still boasts on LinkedIn of her 'armful of awards' but has not been published in a year

Duffin, Alex Stock, 21, from Great Falls, Virginia and Kathryn Hendley, 21, from Alexandria, Virginia, all challenged Rolling Stone's accuracy.

Stock told the Associated Press that while 'Jackie' had appeared 'really upset, really shaken up' on the night in question, she did not look beaten up and was not wearing a bloodied dress as described in Rolling Stone.

He denied that she had named a specific frat house and also said that the allegations that he, Hendley and Duffin had debated the social cost of reporting the rape were completely untrue.

The trio also questioned the existence of 'Drew', the student who allegedly lured 'Jackie' to the frat house that night. They had been unable to find him on social media.

A photo of 'Drew' given to Duffin later turned out to be a classmate from 'Jackie's' high school who 'never really spoke to her' and was away in another state on the night of the alleged assault.

Discredited: The article written by Sabrina Erdely has been withdrawn and errors at every stage before publication identified

The Rolling Stone article was the subject of investigation internally and then by Columbia University, arguably the most prestigious journalism school in the US. It found writer Erderly had failed to conform to 'basic, even routine journalistic practice' inaccuracies at every stage of her reporting.

Its report said that Duffin and his friends had not been treated with 'basic fairness' by Erderly, who did nothing to contact them to seek their side of the story - or even identify who the really were.

Rolling Stone has not dropped Erderly as a contributing editor, although the journalist, who boasts of her 'armful of awards', has not tweeted in almost a year or been published by the magazine since the UVA story.

The magazine's editor-in-chief, Will Dana, left in August as a result of the scandal. Publisher Jann Wenner told New York Times it was a 'conscious uncoupling' and that it was 'very important for us to figure out a way to move on'.

Duffin told Daily Mail Online that much of the bitterness in the wake of the article is still centered not on 'Jackie' but on Rolling Stone. He said he harbors no hard feelings himself.

'I think some students feel some animosity towards Rolling Stone,' he said. 'It's become a bit of a running joke around Grounds [campus] - some people lump Rolling Stone in with other UVA rivals.'

He also said that he was supportive of how the university has reacted to the scandal.

'They introduced a mandatory course on how to help and deal with the victims of sexual assault - that was something the whole school had to do,' he said.

In the aftermath of the publication of Rolling Stone article, pictures from 'Jackie's' past have surfaced,

Move on: Ryan Duffin does not want 'Jackie' blamed. 'The investigation conducted by Columbia University makes it pretty clear that the blame for the story should fall squarely on Rolling Stone,' he says

Duffin said he was surprised when reports that Jackie was 'obsessed' with rape emerged, as a result of her extensive postings on social media about sexual assault.

'I never really got that impression,' he said. 'It came as a surprise. There was nothing to indicate she had any sort of obsession.

'However, I also recognize that I don't know much about her life prior to college - I only knew her for a small portion of her life.'

'Jackie's' future life has yet to play out, but Duffin said he hopes she will be able to overcome what happened to her and move on.

He also said she should not be blamed for the furor that ensued after the Rolling Stone piece was published and places the responsibility for any upset squarely at the feet of the magazine.

'The investigation conducted by Columbia University makes it pretty clear that the blame for the story should fall squarely on Rolling Stone,' he said.

'There were so many opportunities during the fact-checking process to realize that the claims made in the article weren't substantiated, and every single one of those opportunities was squandered.

'Many people worry that the backlash from this article will make survivors of sexual assault less likely to seek help when they need it for fear of not being believed.