A Borders baker has been cleared of raping a sleeping woman after a jury found the allegation against him not proven.
The jurors – at the High Court in Livingston – took just two hours to return a majority verdict.
Then the judge, Lord Boyd, told 45-year-old Mark Ormiston he was free to leave the dock.
Ormiston was earlier acquitted of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, and placing the same woman in a state of fear and alarm between November 8, 2013, and November 8, 2014, after the Crown withdrew the allegation.
Ormiston, who comes from Jedburgh, had denied subjecting the 44-year-old mother to a degrading rape ordeal.
He lodged a special defence, claiming she had consented to have sex with him in her home on November 8, 2014.
Following the verdict, Ormiston, who has been on remand for nearly nine months, had a tearful reunion with his father and another close family member before leaving court with them.
He claimed in evidence that he had a clear recollection of the sexual encounter, even though he had drunk around 10 pints of beer while watching rugby matches in Kelso and Jedburgh on the day of the allegation.
Ormiston told the jury: “She was making some noises I’d heard in similar situations, little sounds of pleasure like she was enjoying it.”
However, the accused said he stopped having sex with her after she told him he was hurting her.
Giving evidence, the woman told the court she awakened to find Ormiston having sex with her without her consent.
She described the situation as so surreal she wondered if it had been a dream.
However, Ormiston’s defence team told the jury there was no evidence from neighbours or two people sleeping upstairs to corroborate the womans claims that she had screamed and shouted at Ormiston during the alleged incident.