Legal foundation PrisonLaw has raised €10,000 through crowdfunding to pay for legal help for a Dutchman who has spent 11 years in jail in Spain for two rapes he did not commit.

Romano van der Dussen was jailed for 15 years for three violent assaults in the resort of Fuengirola.

However, British police have confirmed the dna of the rapist matches that of British man Mark Dixie who has since been jailed for murder. Dixie has also confessed to the crimes.

Despite this, Van der Dussen remains in jail, prompting PrisonLaw to take action. PrisonLaw is a foundation which supports Dutch prisoners abroad.

Dutch MP Pieter Omzigt has also criticised the British and Spanish authorities over the ‘judicial failures’ and written to the Council of Europe to raise the case.

Van der Dussen was not brought back to the Netherlands to serve his sentence because ‘he lived in Spain at the time of his arrest’, RTL quoted the Dutch foreign affairs ministry as saying last year.

He told El Pais that his life in the Spanish jail was hell. ‘My life has been ruined,’ he told the paper. Van Dussen was jailed on the basis of evidence from two of the victims who said he was their attacker, even though dna evidence did not match.