A man once convicted of raping a woman at a beer festival has been cleared following a retrial granted after his mum tracked down a new witness.

In dramatic court scenes, Parrie Jacob dropped to his knees and clutched his hands to his face as the not guilty verdict was read out.

The jury had deliberated for just over seven hours at the end of a three-week trial.

They did not know Mr Jacob, from Hythe, had been jailed at Canterbury Crown Court for seven-and-a-half years in March 2022 after being found guilty the previous year of the alleged stranger attack.

He spent a total of 18 months behind bars before the Court of Appeal in April last year overturned his conviction and ordered the retrial.

He vehemently denied rape and maintained following his arrest in July 2019 and during all legal proceedings that the complainant had initiated sexual contact and consented throughout.

The only new evidence at the second trial, again at Canterbury, came from a witness - a security guard at the festival - who was traced by Mr Jacob's mum, Suzanne.

Police efforts at the time were said to have drawn a blank.

Mr Jacob, a carpenter by trade and volunteer football coach, was just 21 when he was accused of pushing the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, into a portable loo and pinning her down to subject her to an ordeal lasting several minutes.

The woman described how she had protested as her alleged attacker at the festival in Mersham told her “I know you want it”.

But Mr Jacob, now 26, told the court she had followed him into the temporary toilet and "taken the lead" as she first performed a sex act on him before pulling her trousers and underwear down and clambering on his lap.

He maintained she had not at any point refused or given any indication she was not consenting.

At the retrial, he was asked by his barrister, Tanya Robinson, how he felt about giving evidence, to which he replied: "It's nerve-racking, but I have got to do everything I can to prove I'm not guilty."

The court heard the complainant was heading to the toilets at about 11pm when it was alleged Mr Jacob "took the opportunity to overpower her, take complete advantage and force himself on her", said prosecutor Christopher May.

They did not know each other, were with different groups of people and, apart from having been on the marquee dance floor at the same time, there had been very little interaction between them.

Mr May told jurors that once at the row of portable loos and using the torch on her phone, the woman began knocking on doors as she tried to find one of her party.

But as she reached an open cubicle, she said she was suddenly shoved inside from behind and forced head-first down onto the toilet.

Her attacker, she later told police, then grabbed her face and tried to kiss her before yanking down her trousers and underwear and raping her from behind.

In police body-worn camera footage played to the jury, the woman described how the alleged ordeal lasted minutes but "felt like a lifetime".

"I was saying 'Get off' and 'No' and 'What are you doing?'. He was saying 'You want it'. He was just on me. I was trying to get him off.

I tried to push him off and push myself up but he was pushing his body against me...

"It's very cramped in there and I couldn't move to push him properly. He was heavier than me and trying to put a lot of weight on me.

"I couldn't move, I couldn't stop him. I couldn't scream or anything.

"I couldn't stop him from pulling my trousers and underwear down, and pushing me down and just doing what he was doing.

"I tried to push him off and push myself up but he was pushing his body against me.

"I was trying to tell him 'No' as he was pulling my clothes off. I was like 'No, just stop" and he was (saying) 'You want it, you want it'."

Her alleged ordeal ended when the loo door was suddenly opened from outside and someone cried out "Oh my god, they are sh***ing in there!"

The woman said she then pushed back, causing Jacob to fall out of the two-metre high by one-metre wide cubicle, and she locked the door behind him as she phoned one of her group for help.

Asked by Mr May how she felt when she gave her account to police, she told the court: "It's difficult to explain how you feel after something like that - in shock, disbelief, empty, dirty - and many more feelings I have never experienced before."

Mr Jacob, of Herons Way, was then confronted by another festival-goer and asked if he had "tried to grab a girl" into the cubicles.

The court heard he denied this but it was claimed he then ran off, only to be chased by the man, gripped by his collar and "thrown at the feet" of security staff.

Mr May said a "misunderstanding" meant Mr Jacob was eventually allowed to leave, but once the situation was fully understood police were alerted.

In the meantime, Mr Jacob, with a swelling to his head from being punched during the confrontation outside the toilet, phoned his friend, Ben Randall, to pick him up.

It was as he was being driven home that he told Mr Randall he had had sex with a woman but that it "wasn't proper".

Mr Randall told his friend he needed to explain himself to police and, as they headed back to the festival, he flagged down a passing patrol car and Mr Jacob was arrested.

Giving evidence, Mr Randall told the court his friend appeared "shaken up and s***-scared" and was saying "I haven't done anything wrong".

He described Mr Jacob's nature as "timid" and added he had never seen him behaving inappropriately or disrespectfully to women in the two years of knowing him.

During police interviews and his two trials, Mr Jacob described how the woman - who he said he had briefly held hands with on the dance floor - had followed him to the portable loos and then entered his cubicle unexpectedly as he finished urinating.

He explained that having turned round to face her, she locked the door and they then began kissing "in the moment".

Mr Jacob said it "felt natural" despite him not being sexually interested in her.

He then described how she "took the lead" by guiding him down onto the closed seat and crouched down to perform a sex act on him.

He said that having pulled his trousers down "together" she then removed her clothing to her ankles and straddled him.

But Mr Jacob, who had had eight pints of cider throughout the event, told the jury that after two to three minutes of intercourse, he told her he wanted to stop as it "was not right".

He said she was neither upset nor showed any sign of rejection.

Mr Jacob told the court he then dressed, unlocked the cubicle door and waited outside, intending to walk her back to the marquee.

However, he said he was then asked by a man if he had been in the toilet "with her" and, after replying 'Yes' and starting to walk away, was punched and knocked to his knees.

He refuted the prosecution's assertion he had been asked if he had been "dragging girls" into the portable loos.

Mr Jacob said he felt intimidated so ran to security "for safety", and was "completely stunned" to learn a few minutes later that there had been a sexual allegation made against him.

He told police one of the bouncers had said to him "I don't believe a word what anybody is saying".

He maintained that the complainant had never told him to stop or had appeared at any point to not be consenting, and that no one had opened the door on them.

Asked by Ms Robinson about his comment that the sex "wasn't proper", Mr Jacob told the jury he meant in the sense of location, the fact they were strangers and that he was in the early stages of a potential relationship with another woman.

He also denied he had ever behaved "lechy" towards women or having gone to the festival to "trawl" for girls.

Describing himself as "merry", Mr Jacob told the jury: "I was there to have a good time, to enjoy the festival.

"I just went there to have a good time with friends, have a dance together and enjoy the music."

I just went there to have a good time with friends, have a dance together and enjoy the music…

The court heard in the week following the reported rape, police made two media appeals for information.

However, none of the responses received were in relation to the incident at the portable loos or from anyone who had opened the cubicle door and interrupted the alleged rape.

Police attempts to speak to two security guards involved in the incident were unsuccessful in respect of one - Byron Parara - while the other refused to give a statement.

But the court heard Mr Parara was eventually tracked down by Jacob's mum in 2022 and subsequently gave two statements.

Giving evidence at the retrial, he told the jury he had seen a woman following a man into a portable loo.

This, he said, "gave him a predicament" as such behaviour was not permitted in case it led to drug-use or an altercation.

Mr Parara also told the court he had seen the man gesturing at the woman not to join him inside.

However, he waited until they re-emerged - the man having come out first - to speak to them. He said the pair then walked back to the dance marquee.

Mr Parara said the next time he saw the man he was being chased and repeatedly punched by several others, and had to step in to protect him.

But he denied anyone had been thrown at his feet or knowing a rape allegation had been made.

The now ex-doorman also told the court that police did not speak to him at the scene, and he had not moved address in the intervening years.

Following his arrest, Mr Jacob spent two years on bail until his first trial in October 2021.

On being found guilty on that occasion he was immediately remanded into custody.

As a convicted sex offender, he was taken to category B prison Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight before being transferred to a lower category jail.

Mr Jacob was then released from custody following his successful appeal and was on bail throughout his retrial.