A day out with friends at Chester Races ended in 17 months of mental agony for one Chester man labelled a rapist. Now a cleared man, Glenn McGovern tells SELENA O'DONNELL about the allegation that came close to destroying his life.

GLENN McGovern, who turned 25 on Monday, broke down in Chester Crown Court on Friday after a jury took less than 25 minutes to find him not guilty of raping a woman on May 5, 2004.

Mr McGovern, who took an over-dose months before the trial, recalls the seconds before the verdict was read out.

'The foreman of the jury stood up and my heart started beating really, really fast and I thought 'this is it, this is my life now',' he said.

'When he said not guilty, I just started crying. I thought 'finally, it's over'.'

Those two words drew to a close an horrific 17 months for Mr McGovern, his family and new girlfriend Bernise Whitley, who has stood by him throughout his ordeal.

'Did I ever doubt him?' said Miss Whitley. 'Never. No-one did.'

Mr McGovern's nightmare began when a day at Chester Races ended at a friend's house in Saltney, where he went upstairs to check on a 20-year-old woman who had returned early from a night out.

Throughout his four-day trial Mr McGovern insisted what followed was consensual sex and witnesses described how the alleged victim had asked Mr McGovern to walk her home, which he refused to do.

He said: 'When I heard what she was saying the next day, I was just really frightened and shocked, everyone was.'

Miss Whitley, who says the trauma of the following months brought them together as a couple, said: 'When my mum told me, I just thought 'What? Glenn wouldn't do that'. I thought it must be a mistake, someone's lying or it's just a rumour. I think I might have even laughed at the idea.'

After an initial round of police interviews, Mr McGovern wasn't contacted again until November, when he received a phone call from his solicitor saying that unless new evidence came to light the case would be dropped.

'We thought 'brilliant, we can get on with our lives now' and we didn't hear anything else until May 7, 2005,' said Mr McGovern.

On that afternoon, more than a year after the allegation, police officially charged him with rape.

'When they said they were charging me, I just broke down, I was just crying,' he said. 'I was so scared.

'I thought about what it would be like going to prison. You hear all these stories and I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it.'

The reality of taking the stand in the same court where child killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady were tried proved traumatic for Mr McGovern, who wept as he gave evidence.

He said: 'I don't like speaking to people I don't know anyway, so to sit in a courtroom in front of a load of people talking about intimate things was just horrible.

'You never imagine that you're going to be in that situation. I am not angry with her, I just wish she hadn't done it.'

The experience has left Mr McGovern asking questions not only about the delays in his case but about the identification policy of sexual allegation cases.

He added: 'I think it's wrong that you get identified and the other person doesn't. They publish your name, your address and if there's people who didn't believe you they could come round and smash your windows or something.

'I do genuinely feel sorry for girls that have been raped and they shouldn't be named but neither should the other person until they are found guilty.'