A file photo of Huang Jing.

A man named Jiang Junwu, who was accused of raping a 21-year-old primary school teacher three years ago, was Monday found not guilty of the charges.

However, according to the judgement by a court in Yuhu District of Xiangtan, a city in Central China's Hunan Province, Jiang must pay the family 60,000 yuan (US$7,500) of civil compensation.

The trial opened at the end of last year, 34 months after Huang Jing's naked body was found in her dormitory in Xiangtan on February 24, 2003 covered in bruises.

Huang's boyfriend Jiang, an official with the local taxation administration, admitted that he stayed in her room that night. He said he tried to have sex with Huang, who was unwilling.

In June 2003, three death investigation reports by local police concluded that Huang died of a heart attack.

But Huang's mother, Huang Shuhua, argued that medical records showed her daughter had no history of heart trouble. And the conclusion failed to explain the bruises all over her body.

The mother thought that her daughter's death might have been caused by rape, so she sought the opinion of medical experts who concluded that there was no evidence to back the heart attack theory.

Prosecution started in December 2003, but since then Huang's body, which should have been preserved, began to decompose.

Some of her organs, including the heart, were burned, and her medical records went missing.

In August 2004, a coroner of the Supreme People's Court concluded that Huang died of heart diseases triggered by unusual sexual activities.