'It broke my heart': Woman's heartache after US Navy officer she accused of Tinder date rape was allowed to walk free - despite 'admitting she said no' in taped phone call

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A woman has described her torment after a jury acquitted her alleged rapist - despite hearing a taped phone call in which he acknowledges that she said 'no'.

Amelia Dennie, 20, claimed she was sexually assaulted on a first date with a US Navy officer that she met on Tinder in Utah in October 2014.

Two days later she recorded a phone call, with the help of law enforcement, in which the man admitted to ignoring her when she refused his advances.

And a doctor testified that she had injuries consistent with her account.

However, despite hearing the recording in court, the jury in Provo sided with the man.

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'Torment': Amelia Dennie, 20, (pictured) claimed she was raped after a Tinder date with a US Navy officer in October 2014. Her alleged attacker confessed in a recorded phone call before he was acquitted by a jury

Dennie, who is now married, slammed the verdict - and even the prosecutors were stumped.

'It broke my heart,' Dennie told Daily Mail Online as she described the moment the jury delivered their verdict.  

'It was incredibly re-victimizing in the sense that the man who did it had already ignored my "no"... He had already done the absolute worst to me. 

'It felt like the jury did exactly the same thing. It felt like they felt my "no"s meant nothing compared to what he wanted.'

One in eight women in Utah will be raped in their lifetime, according to federal crime reports. 

The state's rape rate is far higher than the national average, with 68 per 100,000 females compared to 51.  

But just 10 per cent of assaults are reported. And very few of those cases reach a court room.

Dennie's case went further than most. And her lawyers felt confident that with the phone call recording and the doctor's report they would secure a rare conviction.

She reported the alleged incident the night of her date, and went straight for a medical examination. 

Two days later the police detective met her at work, recommending that she try to call her alleged attacker to get a confession. She agreed, and sat in the detective's car to make the call, with a recording device plugged into her phone.

In the phone call, which Dennie has published on YouTube, she says: 'I said "stop" multiple times, did I not?'

The man, who cannot be named as he has a legal right to anonymity since the not-guilty verdict, responds: 'I know you did.'

He also says: 'I don't want to make you look like - make it seem like it's your fault also. It's not. But they were like very subtle no's.'

He later concludes: 'It shouldn't have ever happened... No is no, so that's 100 per cent on me.'

Speaking out about the case in the first report about it, prosecutor Ryan McBride told KTVX reporter Kim Fischer he was astonished by the outcome.

'I don’t know why [he was let off],' he said. 'I've thought about that a lot. I don’t know.

'She reported it to police that night. She had a medical exam that corroborated her story and then we had a recorded interview with the suspect. 

'When I see that evidence I say we’ve got everything here.' 

Defense lawyers for the man listed the items in the rape kit Dennie's doctors compiled after her examination, including her attire. 

The attorney described her shorts as provocative.

Moving on: Amelia has since married her college boyfriend Najee LaSayviawn Dennie (right), who she met months later. She said her focus is now on moving past the ordeal so it is not a part of her daily life

'It had in the rape kit that I was wearing shorts,' Dennie explained. 

'The defense attorney made several comments saying that my shorts were too short and basically that I was asking for it because I was wearing shorts.

'It's incredibly victim-blaming. I luckily have gone through so much therapy and so much support to know that it's not true, that it wasn't my fault. It was just incredibly difficult to hear him blame me.'

McBride said Dennie's case is an example of a widespread culture of victim-blaming.

He said: 'When we first hear of someone that’s sexually assaulted our first reaction is, "why didn’t you do this?" 

'We have these stereotypes - "What were you wearing?" - and we start to criticize the victim. I think the initial response we should have is, "are you ok?"'

Dennie said she is now focused on moving on. 

In March 2015 she met and started dating Najee' LaSayviawn Dennie at college. They got married in March this year. 

He sat with her throughout the trial, and was there with her parents for the verdict. 

'He's wonderful, he's my rock,' Dennie said. 

The couple live with their two dogs in Provo, where Najee' works in quality control for an internet firm.

'I'm trying to move on with my life,' Dennie told the Mail. 'I'm just learning to live with it, I just want to get to a point where it's not part of my everyday. 

'Right now it's one of the first things I think about in the morning. But I have hours - usually three to four hours - of therapy a week so I'm trying to get past it.'

She defiantly looks ahead at her future: 'I plan on having kids and having a family one day, this won't be part of my daily life forever.'