Former Stanford University student Brock Turner, whose sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman created international controversy, has been released from jail after serving three months.

Turner, a 21-year-old swimmer, was released early for good behaviour and didn’t answer questions as he left the Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose, California.

According to the ABC, Sheriff’s deputies flanked him as he left the scene in a white sports utility.

Turner was 19 at the time of the incident, which saw him arrested after being caught assaulting an intoxicated and unconscious 22-year-old woman on campus.

The horror ended only when two students from Sweden, riding by on bicycles, saw what was happening and stopped Turner.

The woman, identified as “Emily Doe”, was hospitalised and realised what she’d been subjected to when she saw news reports on the incident.

Turner was charged with sexual assault, with the case gaining huge global exposure when a letter from “Doe” to Turner went viral.

Turner’s mugshot was withheld by the District Attorney for 16 months. Photo: Santa County Sheriff’s Office

It sparked anger at Turner’s relatively minor short sentence.

Following the sentencing, a petition calling for the judge residing over the case to be disbarred garnered over one million signatures, while the anger intensified after a letter sent by Turner’s father to the judge claimed his son should not be punished for “20 minutes of action”.

No alcohol, no freedom

In June, judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months in prison, followed by three years probation.

Turner’s early release will see him move back in with his parents in their Ohio home, checking in every three months in person at the sheriff’s office to ensure he hasn’t moved.

Following his release, Greene county Sheriff Gene Fischer said Turner has five days to register as a sex offender with his local office and will be required to report to a probation officer for three years.

Fischer also said Turner’s neighbours would be notified that a convicted sex offender is moving nearby and that Turner would be required to avoid alcohol entirely during his probation period.

‘You took away my worth’

In “Doe’s” statement read in court, she said: “You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today.

“You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.”

Sexual assault victim Sofie Karasek at a rally to have Judge Persky recalled. Photo: Getty

Text messages retrieved from the former champion swimmer’s mobile phone contradict his claims that he was a clean-living, small-town boy seduced by the heavy drinking and casual-sex culture of university.

Turner had claimed he consensually engaged in sexual activity with the victim, and was blindsided when two Swedish graduate students chased him and pinned him to the ground after riding past on bicycles.

Turner’s release prompted protestors to gather outside of his family home, scrawling messages of disapproval in chalk on the footpath outside.

There were also renewed calls for Judge Persky to be recalled at a rally in Santa Clara County, with fellow sexual assault survivor Sofie Karasek saying, “If someone who had such a clear case was failed by the system, what hope is there for the rest of us?”.