[12] Samples taken the next day[clarification needed] showed no alcohol, although the prosecution argued this was due to normal elimination over time.

Judge Merfyn Hughes QC stated in his sentencing remarks that: "The complainant was 19 years of age and was extremely intoxicated.

[16][19] By November 2013, Evans had recruited a new legal team headed by an ex-senior detective, Russ Whitfield, and higher courts specialist Criminal lawyer David Emanuel.

[23] In October 2015, the CCRC, based on new material which was not considered by the jury at trial, decided to refer the case to the Court of Appeal.

When the appellant [Ched Evans] was first asked what happened in room 14, he described in graphic detail the sexual behaviour of a woman who, on the prosecution case, would have been incapable of behaving in that way.

According to The Guardian, During the appeal case that led to the retrial, lawyers for the crown suggested that the two new witnesses may have been “fed” information by those close to Evans.

The appeal court judges expressed “a considerable degree of hesitation” before allowing the new evidence of the former partners because it would result in the complainant’s sexual behaviour being subject to forensic scrutiny.

Evans’s girlfriend, Natasha Massey, was accused in legal argument during the second trial of offering an “inducement” to a key witness.

The trial judge disagreed.In court, Evans admitted that he lied to get the key for the hotel room and did not speak to the woman before, during or after sex.

[32] The main new evidence included was from other men who had had consensual sex with the woman, who testified that her sexual behaviour was similar to that which Evans described.

[33][34] The prosecution's allegations of the witnesses of perhaps receiving this account from Evans' defence campaign, and being motivated by the £50,000 reward offered for information were rejected by the jury.

Former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Holly Dustin, the director of End Violence Against Women, and Secretary of State for the Home Department Theresa May warned of the risks posed by discussing court cases on social media websites, and reiterated the need to protect the anonymity of complainants in cases concerning sexual offences.

[42] Sheffield United academy and reserve team player Connor Brown was suspended by his club after allegedly making offensive comments about the woman on Twitter, although he did not give her name.

[43][44] On 5 November 2012, nine people who had named the complainant on Twitter and Facebook, including a cousin of Evans, were each told to pay her £624 after admitting the offence at Prestatyn magistrates' court.