Preliminary hearings On 8 August 2011, McDonald and Evans appeared before
Prestatyn Magistrates' Court charged with rape. The defendants were released on bail and did not comment on the matter, but McDonald told his team,
Port Vale F.C.'s website that he "strongly refute[d]" the allegation. Evans also issued a statement on
Sheffield United's website stating that he "strenuously denie[d] the charge". McDonald and Evans entered pleas of not guilty at the
Crown Court at
Caernarfon on 14 October, and were remanded on bail. However, she woke up naked and confused in a hotel bed with no memory of anything since leaving a dancing session with friends the previous night. She suspected that her memory loss was due to a spiked drink. Samples taken the next day showed no
alcohol, although the prosecution argued this was due to normal elimination over time. The samples did show traces of
cocaine and
cannabis, which she denied taking on the night of the incident. The prosecution argument was that the woman was too intoxicated to have consented. The defence agreed that McDonald met the woman on the street and took her back to the hotel, where they were later joined by Evans. However, they claimed that both men had sex with the woman separately and with her consent. They argued she was not too drunk to consent, and suggested that her claim of memory loss may be a lie. On 20 August 2012, leave to appeal was refused by a single judge of the Court of Appeal, and on 6 November 2012, a three-judge panel agreed with the refusal. 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. In July 2014, he launched another appeal attempt via the
Criminal Cases Review Commission. Evans was released from prison, reaching the date for release on the early release scheme, without misbehaviour nor an adverse Probation Service report, on 17 October 2014. Shortly afterwards, the Criminal Cases Review Commission announced that they were prioritising their review of his conviction. 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. This obliged the court to reconsider the trial process and evidence admitted and excluded leading to the conviction. The appeal evidence was heard by Lady Justice Hallett,
Mr Justice Flaux, and Sir David Maddison on 22 and 23 March 2016, and the decision pronounced on 21 April. To avoid prejudicing the retrial, it prohibited the publication of details of the appeal until the retrial was complete. stated: According to
The Guardian,
Retrial Evans' retrial began on 4 October 2016 at
Cardiff Crown Court. 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. Details of a complainant's sexual history are not usually admissible, but there is an exception, reiterated (upheld) on appeal in the Law Reports, for evidence which is "so similar [to the defence's account] that the similarity cannot reasonably be explained as a coincidence". 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. On 14 October, following two hours of deliberation, the jury of seven women and five men returned a verdict of not guilty. ==Naming of complainant on the internet==