A RAPE conviction against a Huddersfield man has been quashed - even though he died in prison in 2002.

The serious miscarriage of justice suffered by Darryl Gee will send shockwaves through Government moves announced this week to make it easier to secure rape convictions.

Mr Gee, who was disabled and lived in Lindley, was convicted by a jury of rape and indecent assault against a girl he had taught to play a musical instrument at a Huddersfield school in 1989 when she was 10.

She only made the allegations against him 10 years later.

It was a case of her word against Mr Gee at Leeds Crown Court.

The jury convicted him by a majority verdict in January, 2001, and he was jailed for eight years.

Mr Gee died suddenly in Armley Prison, Leeds, in August, 2002 - just a month after he lost a second appeal against his conviction. He was 55.

But his 88-year-old mother, Molly, and a family friend, retired Huddersfield Royal Infirmary consultant surgeon Geoff Bunch, continued the fight to clear his name.

They alerted the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which brought in memory expert Dr Martin Conway, a professor of psychology at Leeds University.

His report on Mr Gee's accuser - along with other medical evidence about her - led to yesterday's successful appeal at the Appeal Court in London.

The presiding judge, Lady Justice Smith, also granted Mrs Gee costs of £62,493 - the money she has had to spend pursuing the case to prove her son's innocence.

The girl, who is now 26, had made very similar allegations against John Hudson, from Huddersfield.

His conviction was quashed by the Appeal Court last year and at a re-trial in February this year the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence.

Mr Gee and Mr Hudson did not know one another.

Mr Gee's barrister, Mr Malcolm Swift QC, had appealed against conviction and prosecuting barrister Mr Jeremy Richardson told the three Appeal Court judges the CPS did not oppose the appeal.

He admitted "real reservations as to the credibility of the accounts that the complainant has given".

He added: "This case, along with the associated case, has received the most exhaustive examination by the Crown."

Mr Swift said: "The belief of the Gee family is that this is a tragic case from all points of view. Mr Gee always protested his innocence.

"As far as the Gee family is concerned this was a miscarriage of justice."

Lady Justice Smith said that if what was known now was known at the time of Mr Gee's trial the outcome may have been very different.

She said: "The outcome might well have been to acquit Mr Gee and we must find the verdicts unsafe. The convictions will be quashed and we hope this sad story can be said to be at an end."

Mrs Gee was given the good news in a phone call from a tearful Mr Bunch, who was at the hearing.

She said: "I'm just so pleased, but I'll have to ring off now because I'm going to cry."

Mr Swift said later: "Fortunately cases like these are rare, but they do happen. The system isn't geared to look at difficult cases like this.

"In cases of a sexual nature the state of the law is not satisfactory.

"Darryl's case is very unusual. You do not often get cases that are provably wrong."

He said that after Mr Gee lost his appeal in July, 2002, he was a shattered man and died in Armley Prison just weeks later.

Mr Swift added: "Up to then he had faith in the criminal justice system. But after the appeal judgement he was clearly crushed."

Mr Swift attacked the Government's new plans to make it easier to secure rape convictions.

He said: "Mr Gee's case is why the Government should not be seeking to make it more difficult for innocent defendants to have to prove their innocence."

He said that since the 1980s the law had allowed these kind of cases to go ahead - even when it was just the victim's word against that of the accused.

Terry Clancy, of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, said: "This was a difficult and distressing case for everyone. The help the commission received from the various individuals and agencies involved was crucial in allowing us to carry out a thorough and independent review of the convictions.

"I would also like to say how personally impressed I have been by the patient and quiet dignity exhibited by Mrs Gee throughout this traumatic process."