A MAN falsely accused of rape has spoken of his “10 months of hell”.

Mark Just was unanimously cleared of two charges at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.

The 26-year-old always admitted having sex with a woman near Cogges Farm in Witney having met her after a night out on May 13 but maintained the act was consensual.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail after his acquittal, Mr Just described how the accusation cost him his job, forced him to leave the county, triggered diabetes and led to a 10-day stay in prison on remand.

He said: “I never for a second thought I was going to get found guilty, so I have some faith in the court system.

“Now I can just get on with my life again.

“I had 10 months of hell – I got taken out of my life. I spent 10 days on remand in Bullingdon, I’ve been excluded from the county and had to live in Cornwall, and I’ve been on a tag so I couldn’t leave the house between 8pm and 8am.”

He added: “In a way I feel sorry for her.

“I don't think she meant to tell the police in the first place, it was one of her mates, and she didn’t have the courage to back out of it.

“But the lies that she put with it, some of those things she said, are so ridiculous it makes me angry.”

Mr Just, of Sedge Way, Carterton, said he now hoped to go back to work on building sites.

He said: “I’m just really happy it’s finally over and I can just get on with my life – I can even go to the shop after 8.30pm!”

The woman who made the complaints admitted drinking 15 vodka and lemonades before the encounter. She has lifetime anonymity.

Mr Just’s mother Josie McCann said: “I wish that when people make up lies like this and see them through – and I know it’s hard to pull out once it gets going – there should be some punishment for them.

“It was a farce, the whole thing, that it could get this far.”

Mrs McCann continued: “I know there’s still mud, I know there will still be some people who won’t believe it and will think the jury got it wrong, but they weren’t there in that privileged position of knowing all the information.”

She added: “So many people’s lives have been affected. We are not going to believe it until the morning and there really isn’t a cloud hanging over us or a fear of the future.”