A MAN’S business and reputation are tainted, a young woman’s HSC and mental health are in tatters and prosecutors have been ordered to pay more than $30,000 in legal costs for a bungled rape investigation on Sydney’s northern beaches.

But it could have been worse still, if not for the trove of secrets stored in one of the world’s most popular mobile phones.

In what may be the first time an iPhone’s elephantine memory has saved someone accused of a serious crime, deleted data retrieved by a leading surveillance expert appears to have led to the dropping of five rape charges against a Sydney man.

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