Accused: Louis Richardson, the Durham history student who was accused of rape, said he suffered '15 months of absolute hell'

A woman who claimed she was raped by a high-flying university student made a bombshell request to drop her allegations before the controversial case came to trial.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal the female student told police she wanted to withdraw her claims against fellow undergraduate Louis Richardson, 21, in the summer of 2014.

But she was told it was ‘out of her hands’ and she proceeded to give evidence against the innocent history student, who said he had suffered ‘15 months of absolute hell’ after a jury took just three hours to acquit him last week.

The astonishing revelation heaps further pressure on police and prosecutors who have come under fire over their handling of the case, which has sparked nationwide calls to protect the identity of rape defendants until they are found guilty.

Mr Richardson, of St Helier, Jersey, resigned as secretary of Durham University’s prestigious debating society and was suspended from his studies after the woman alleged he had raped her in his bedroom in March 2014 when she was ‘crazy drunk’, and had sexually assaulted her at a party two months later.

But as he tries to rebuild his shattered life, Durham Police and the Crown Prosecution Service last night refused to answer why his 20-year-old accuser – who has been granted lifelong anonymity – was persuaded to change her mind and give evidence at Durham Crown Court via video link. Jurors heard claims that the young woman – branded ‘highly manipulative, dishonest and dangerous’ by Mr Richardson’s barrister – had continued to have consensual casual sex with him for weeks after the night of the alleged rape.

The law student, who has a history of depression and self-harm, also sent Mr Richardson flirtatious Facebook messages, including a photo of her cleavage, despite being in a relationship with another man at the time.

She made the rape allegation in June 2014 when she confessed to the affair while on holiday with her then-boyfriend, who urged her to contact police.

In previously unreported comments, defence barrister Philippa McAtasney QC told the jury the woman tried to retract her accusations, which she had invented to salve her cheating conscience. She said: ‘She told her boyfriend she had been raped, in wholly different circumstances to what happened. She had no alternative, if she was going to stay with her boyfriend, but to follow through with that complaint.

False claims: It has emerged that the fellow student who accused him - who cannot be identified - tried to drop her allegations in the summer of 2014, before the case came to court, but she was told it was out of her hands

‘She told a police officer she was still seeing her boyfriend. You know he dumped her shortly after. She told her counsellor they split in the summer. After being dumped she did try to withdraw the allegations but it was, in effect, out of her hands by then. Once she has reported it she has started a process she could not halt. Although she tried to drop the charges, she couldn’t realistically.’

During cross-examination, the woman admitted she had wanted to withdraw her allegations with the police but that she had then decided to go through with it. Asked why, she claimed: ‘I didn’t want anyone else to go through that [rape].’

A legal source said the woman may have felt pressure to take her allegations to court because of procedures that are in place to protect victims from witness intimidation. It is possible that at one stage she had been worried about the ordeal of a trial.

She told her boyfriend she had been raped, in wholly different circumstances to what happened. She had no alternative, if she was going to stay with her boyfriend, but to follow through with that complaint… After being dumped she did try to withdraw the allegations but it was, in effect, out of her hands by then… Defence barrister Philippa McAtasney QC

CPS guidelines state that police officers must investigate why a rape complainant wants to drop the case, and that it does not automatically halt criminal proceedings.

The rule says prosecutors ‘will ask the police to give their views about the evidence in the case and how they think the victim might react if they are compelled to attend court’. James Conte, from the campaign group Accused.Me.UK, said: ‘This is not an uncommon story. The police are under so much pressure to investigate these cases that it has been known that women have been threatened with wasting police time or perverting the course of justice.

‘They are in a difficult position, so just go through with it. The way the system works is a gross failure.’

The Mail on Sunday asked Durham Police and CPS North East to clarify whether the woman was pressured into giving evidence. Both declined to answer.

In a prepared statement, a CPS spokesman said: ‘Taking all the evidence into consideration and in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, it was decided that there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it was in the public interest to prosecute this case. We respect the decision of the court.’

A Durham Police spokesman said: ‘Every criminal case of rape or serious sexual assault is considered on its evidential merits.’