Free man: Archie Reed, 20, pictured at the Old Bailey earlier in his trial, was cleared of sexual assault

A judge has attacked prosecutors over a mismanaged rape case in which a former public schoolboy was accused of assaulting a friend after a night of drinking.

Archie Reed, 20, walked free from the Old Bailey yesterday after being cleared of all charges of attacking his ex-classmate in her university halls.

It can now be reported that Judge Anthony Morris QC had urged prosecutors to drop the case before the trial had even begun. During the hearing he also criticised the CPS over some of the evidence submitted.

Mr Reed, who now works for a currency consultancy after leaving his £30,000-a-year boarding school, had been accused of attempting to rape the law student after a boozy night out.

He told the court that a sexual encounter had happened and was ‘definitely consensual’.

Mr Reed was cleared of assault by penetration by the unanimous verdict of the jury of five men and seven women.

He had earlier been formally cleared of attempted rape on the instruction of Judge Morris, who criticised the CPS.

He told prosecutor Dianne Chan: ‘These were people who were good friends of each other, close friends who spent the evening drinking quite a considerable quantity of alcohol together, at the end of which the allegation is the defendant in a drunken state took advantage of her.

‘It is something which he bitterly regretted as soon as it happened and he was stopped in the course of it.

‘Some might say to go through the process now is going to make matters worse rather than better, but that’s a matter for the complainant and the Crown.’

Mr Reed, was accused of pouncing on the 19-year-old woman when they shared a bed after a drunken night out in central London on October 8 last year.

The pair had shared two bottles of wine before she had invited him back to her room after he missed the last Tube. CCTV showed the pair holding hands and hugging on their way back to her halls.

Mr Reed said he had decided to ‘go for it’ after she had kissed him and invited him into her bed. He said she had pushed herself against his groin.

He touched her intimately and when she told him to stop a confused Mr Reed said he left soon afterwards.

She claimed he had pulled off her pyjama bottoms and knickers while she slept.

A fortnight later Mr Reed, who works at Smart Currency Business, was hauled in by police for questioning. He was charged five months later, but the case against him began to unravel as soon as the two-week trial began.

Verdict: Judge Anthony Morris QC said, 'It would be helpful for someone from the CPS to be in court and see the problems created at cases which aren't investigated properly'

The jury struggled to follow a video interview with the alleged victim, and it was left to the defence team to produce a transcript.

Police experts had been unable to download key texts sent and received by the woman, and had resorted to taking photos of the screens, which were barely legible.

Forced into yet another adjournment because evidence was not ready, Judge Morris said: ‘I would never have started this case if I had known it would take this course. That is a shortcoming of the investigation of this matter.’

It then emerged that vital messages sent by the alleged victim hours after the incident had been wiped.

Police were forced to admit they had not seized her phone after she first complained, and waited six months before analysing it.

Invited home: Mr Reed told the Old Bailey how his accuser invited him home and forced him away after he started performing a sex act on her

When he learned the alleged victim had not been questioned about the missing texts, the judge took a further swipe at the Crown Prosecution Service for pursuing the case.

He said: ‘Sometimes it would be helpful for someone from the CPS to be in court and see the problems created at cases which aren’t investigated properly, and the consequences, instead of being at the end of the phone opining whether cases should go ahead or not.’

In spiky exchanges with Miss Chan, the judge asked whether the CPS knew ‘what a mess had been made of the telephone evidence’.

Mr Reed’s defence team narrowly failed to have the case against him thrown out, and then brought forward a string of glowing character references.

The former head girl at his school described Mr Reed as a ‘gentleman’ who could always be trusted to look after his friends.

She said her baby-faced friend, an accomplished musician and singer, had never taken advantage of her and was shy around girls.

Trial: The judge of the criminal hearing at the Old Bailey in Central London (pictured) said he would not have started the trial had he known the parlous state of the evidence

Mr Reed, of Kensington, West London, denied attempted rape and assault by penetration. His barrister Sallie Bennett-Jenkins QC said she was considering making a wasted costs application in addition to her client’s defence costs because of the way the case was handled. The judge said any costs application would be heard at a later date.

The verdict comes after a retired judge warned recently that rape convictions will not improve until women stop drinking heavily.

Mary Jane Mowat, 66, told the Oxford Mail of the difficulties of bringing sex assault cases to court when the alleged victim had been drinking.

She said: ‘I will also say, and I will be pilloried for saying so, but the rape conviction statistics will not improve until women stop getting so drunk.

‘I’m not saying it’s right to rape a drunken woman, I’m not saying for a moment that it’s allowable to take advantage of a drunken woman.

‘But a jury in a position where they’ve got a woman who says “I was absolutely off my head, I can’t really remember what I was doing, I can’t remember what I said, I can’t remember if I consented or not but I know I wouldn’t have done”.