A spokeswoman for the campaign group Women Against Rape added: “This sets a dangerous precedent to allow irrelevant sexual history evidence, which the law was supposed to prevent, opening the floodgates to trashing the woman’s character in any rape trial once again.

“This trial is a throwback to the last century when women who reported rape were assumed to be lying and their sex life was on trial – just a piece of meat, to be done sex to by any man under any circumstance.”

Mr Evans said: “In the early hours of 30th May 2011 an incident occurred in North Wales that was to change my life and the lives of others forever.

“That incident did not involve the commission of a criminal offence and today I am overwhelmed with relief that the jury agreed.”

Thanking his legal team, family and friends he singled out his fiancée who he said “chose, perhaps incredibly, to support me in my darkest hour”.

He added: "Whilst my innocence has now been established, I wish to make it clear that I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone who might have been affected by the events of the night in question."

'Bribe' claim: £50,000 offer to witness

Ched Evans’s girlfriend offered a £50,000 “bribe” to a key witness in his rape trial to help find new evidence to clear him, it can now be reported.

Natasha Massey sent Facebook messages to Gavin Burrough, a receptionist at the Premier Inn near Rhyl. The 27-year-old wrote: “I’m literally begging ... If you know anything please help me.”

The prosecution described her actions as “akin to bribery”.

Her first message was sent at 12.12pm on May 6 2013. “There’s a £50,000 reward for any new evidence. Do you know anything that could help Ched? X,” she wrote.

Evans’s barrister said the messages were simply the actions of a “desperate girlfriend, desperate to seek the clearing of her boyfriend’s name.”

His accuser: 'Living her life on the run'

Now aged 24, the then teenage girl who accused Ched Evans of raping her has been forced to change her name at least five times since that fatal night after receiving hundreds of death threats.

She was a 19-year-old waitress when she ended up in the Premier Inn with Mr Evans after a night out.

But in the five years since the incident, the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been forced to repeatedly move and change her name, spend Christmas away from her loved ones and lost spending precious time with her mother who has died since the incident.

The girl, who has the right to lifelong anonymity as a complainant in a sex attack, was hunted down by Twitter trolls who then revealed her secret identity online.

After Mr Evan's first trial, her name was tweeted by his supporters and then re-tweeted more than 6,000 times.

Police gave her a new identity but her cover has been blown twice more, forcing her to adopt a new name each time in a fresh location.

Her father has said his daughter has been "living her life on the run" since that day.

The girl, who has no memory of the incident, now faces a lifetime of living under a new secret identity and being protected by the authorities due to the threats which have been made against her.

On Friday night North Wales Police were investigating new incidents of her being named again on social media.

This is how the day's events unfolded: