A former soldier accused of raping a woman said he was “innocent from the get go” as he walked free from court yesterday.
Sammy Stewart had been charged with raping a 27-year-old while she was drunk and drugged out at a house in Aberdeen.
But after a four-day trial at the High Court in Aberdeen, a jury took just 40 minutes to return a not guilty verdict.
Mr Stewart, who had taken a bag with him to court yesterday in case he had been found guilty, had always maintained his innocence.
After the verdict, he said: “I knew I was innocent from the get go.
“I broke down in tears outside the court.”
The 29-year-old had been accused of taking advantage of the woman at a property on the city’s Spey Road on September 24, 2014.
During the trial, the court heard Mr Stewart – who was working as a chicken filleter in Aberdeen Market at the time – had spent a day drinking with the woman before going back to the property with her.
The woman was later found in nearby Ness Place, naked from the waist down and distressed, by a passing motorist.
On Thursday, the jury heard evidence from forensic scientist Joanna Tomlin that DNA from the woman had been recovered from Mr Stewart’s body.
However yesterday, defence counsel David Moggach reminded the jury that Miss Tomlin said it was not “outwith the realms of possibility” it could have come from his sheets after she lay down on them, or from some other “secondary transfer”.
Mr Moggach also said that Dr Jillian Newman, who had examined the woman after the alleged incident, said the bruising and swelling on her body were not necessarily the result of a sexual assault.
He said also raised doubts over the reliability of the alleged victim’s evidence.
Mr Moggach said that when she was found, she told the concerned motorist “help me, I’ve just been raped” – but suggested she later contradicted herself by claiming she could not remember anything about the alleged incident when she gave evidence earlier this week.
“If something so awful had just happened your not going to forget it, you’re going to remember it, especially if you are going to have to come to court,” Mr Moggach said in his closing speech to the jury yesterday.
He also pointed to contradictions in the woman’s evidence regarding her tolerance for alcohol.
He recalled that she had said in her evidence that she had blacked out after drinking between six and seven drinks on the day.
But, Mr Moggach said this did not tally with later evidence where she had said she would normally consume more than double that amount on a night out, but would be in control and would not usually suffer from memory blanks.
He also suggested text messages between the pair indicated they had shown an interest in each other – and told the jury that the taxi driver who had taken them back to Spey Road told police Mr Stewart had made several attempts to drop the woman back at her home.
A jury of nine women and six men retired to consider the case but returned less than an hour later with a majority not guilty verdict.
