A convicted rapist was sensationally freed from jail yesterday after it was discovered that a jury had conducted experiments - with pairs of women's panties.

Paul Boseley, a former civilian custody officer with the police, had been convicted of the sex attack on an 18-year-old foreign student.

The trial hinged on the victim's pink panties which were torn in three places and a major exhibit in the case at Worcester Crown Court.

Boseley, aged 22, found them on his living room floor after the teenager fled the house to get a taxi.

The jury heard that he dumped the panties in a dustbin - but police searching his home in Tamworth Avenue, Worcester, found them.

Yesterday Boseley, who insisted he had 10-minute sex with the teenager's consent, was brought back to court from Blakenhurst prison, near Redditch, for sentence.

But Judge David McEvoy QC then revealed that a juror had asked an usher at the end of the trial on Friday whether they could dispose of a pack of five women's panties.

The jury of seven men and five women had experiemented in their jury room, trying to tear them to simulate the victim's underwear.

The judge said: "They bought a pack of five knickers. One is torn. They had been trying the strength of knickers and comparing them with knickers in this case.

"The juror said they had been conscientious, but they decided the case on evidence not before the court."

The judge also revealed two sketches of himself that one juror had drawn during last week's trial.

"The sketches were found in the waste paper basket in the jury room. The juror was not paying enough attention to the trial as one would expect," the judge added.

Nicolas Cartwright, defending, told the judge: "The case turned on the knickers and the damage done to them. The jury had been conducting their own scientific experiments. There seem to be good grounds for appeal."

The judge freed Boseley on bail until today when is due to be sentenced.

But the judge indicated he would be bailed again pending his case being heard by the Court of Appeal.

The judge added: "The prospects of an appeal are good. I think the appeal will be allowed and the conviction quashed."

The prosecution are considering a retrial if the appeal is successful.

Boseley met the alleged victim in a Worcester nightclub on December 8 last year.

He took her home after they had danced together for half an hour, then allegedly stripped and raped her, commenting: "Welcome to England."

The girl, who had been sent to England on a gap year by her school in Slovakia, sent a text message to a friend 15 minutes after the alleged rape saying: "Something terrible has happened."

She claimed 6ft 3ins Boseley grabbed her wrist on a sofa and gave her ten seconds to submit to sex or be punched.

As Boseley - who now lives in High Street, Bloxwich, Walsall - was released from three days in custody he grinned and shouted: "I'm ecstatic. I can't wait to kiss my girlfriend."

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