Police probe launched into Sheffield taxi driver's wrongful rape conviction

Long read: Police failures have ruined my life

The complaint has been made by the defendant in the case, whose 2013 conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in July 2014 after telephone records proving he had been on a conference call with colleagues at the time of the alleged incident were uncovered by his family.

It followed the lead detective in the case telling the original trial at Sheffield Crown Court in January 2013 that such records were not available and admitting under cross-examination he had “made mistakes” in the handling of the investigation.

The taxi driver, who was falsely accused of raping a passenger as he took her home from a night out in December 2011, has decided to come forward in light of the Crown Prosecution Service announcing a review of all rape and serious sexual assault cases last month in light of the collapse of a number of high profile trials because of evidence disclosure failures.

The Court of Appeal ruling that resulted in the conviction being quashed said: “The officer was very frank. He accepted that there had been shortcomings in investigation in a number of respects. He conceded that if there had been such evidence of a conference call taking place covering that period, it might suggest 'possibly he was not responsible'.

“That is by no means an overstatement of the position, as it seems to us.

“The jury may well have reached a different conclusion had this evidence been before it.”

A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Police said: “South Yorkshire Police can confirm a complaint has been received in relation to this case by the Professional Standards Department. As enquiries are currently ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment any further at this stage.”

The driver said he had emailed his complaint to South Yorkshire Police on February 5 but was yet to receive a response or acknowledgment.