Danny Kay: Man cleared of rape loses High Court compensation bid

A man whose rape conviction was quashed after it was found his accuser had "manipulated" Facebook exchanges has lost a High Court bid for compensation.

Danny Kay was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2013 but the conviction was overturned in 2017.

The Ministry of Justice denied him miscarriage of justice compensation.

Lady Justice Macur said new evidence must "positively disprove" a conviction and "not merely undermine" it to warrant compensation.

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During the trial at Derby Crown Court, jurors were shown Facebook messages between Mr Kay and the woman - who cannot be named - that he said were incomplete.

Mr Kay asked prosecutors to obtain the full exchanges from his accuser, believing he could no longer access the messages from his account.

They were found by his family and lawyers after his sentencing and used as part of a successful Court of Appeal challenge in 2017.

Mr Kay was jailed in 2013 for four-and-a-half years after a trial at Derby Crown Court

At a two-day hearing in May, the High Court heard the application for compensation was denied as the deleted Facebook messages did not demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt Mr Kay did not commit the offence.

Mr Kay's lawyers had argued the government had not properly considered how the woman's manipulation of the messages undermined her credibility and the context of the discussions.

But Lady Justice Macur said the retrieved messages "did not explicitly or implicitly discuss the act of sexual intercourse or the issue of consent, nor establish that the nature of the ongoing interaction was inconsistent with an offence of rape".

While noting Mr Kay "has suffered greatly because of his conviction and imprisonment", she said his case did not meet the requirements for an award to be made.

"For compensation to be payable, the newly discovered fact admitted into the appeal proceedings must positively disprove the commission of the offence beyond reasonable doubt, and not merely undermine the safety of the conviction," she said.