A FORMER magistrate cleared of rape is facing financial ruin after lawyers acting for his accuser demanded he pay half a million pounds in costs.

Tony Hunt, from Blandford St Mary, and his wife, Lynn, could lose everything if a hearing in London later this week goes against him.

Mr Hunt, 69, of Bournemouth Road was jailed in 2003 when a jury at Winchester Crown Court found him guilty of raping a woman in her home after they both attended a country show in Fordingbridge. The ex-traffic warden spent nearly two years in jail before his conviction was quashed on appeal when new witnesses came forward and the Appeal Court decided the trial judge had misdirected the jury.

But when an attempt to claim compensation for his wrongful conviction was unsuccessful Mr Hunt embarked on an unusual course of legal action which could ruin him and his family, who have stood by him throughout.

Mr Hunt remortgaged his home and took out loans to fund a legal battle to sue his accuser but the case was thrown out in October 2009 when judges said she could not be sued because she was not the prosecutor.

The law firm which acted for the woman has now landed him with a £500,000 bill and a ruling will be made at the Supreme Court costs office at Clifford’s Inn in London on Thursday.

If it goes against him, Mr Hunt faces bankruptcy.

Mr Hunt is reported to have said: “I feel disgusted – I spent two years in prison as an innocent man. I have felt suicidal at times.”

And solicitor Stephen Taylor added: “Mr Hunt has been living a nightmare for the last nine years”.

North Dorset MP Bob Walter said: “I’m trying to do what I can for Mr Hunt, who finds himself in a most unfortunate situation due to a number of technicalities.”

Mr Hunt worked as a magistrate in Southampton.