An oil worker accused of raping a married mum in a lane in Aberdeen city centre has walked free from court.
Anthony Clark had been on trial at the High Court in the city this week accused of carrying out the sex attack on Valentine’s Day last year.
However, after a four day trial a jury of nine women and six men found Mr Clark not guilty by a majority verdict.
A special defence had been lodged by Mr Clark’s counsel David Moggach, insisting all sexual contact between the pair had been consensual.
During the first day of evidence jurors heard from the woman who accused him of rape. She claimed she had been dragged into a lane leading away from Bon Accord Terrace before Mr Clark attacked her.
She said he raped her there as she was leaning against a flight of external steps.
The court heard the 29-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been on a night out with her best friend on February 13 when the pair met Mr Clark, of 23 Lake View, Hebburn, near Newcastle, and his colleague.
She told the jury the men approached them as they were drinking in the Vodka Bar on Belmont Street and they stayed in their company as the night continued.
Early the next morning the shop worker’s friend was taken home by her boyfriend, but she decided to stay with Mr Clark and his co-worker, she said.
However she admitted that during the night she had been kissing other men – despite being married.
The court was then shown CCTV footage of the trio walking along Union Street, Langstane Place, Bon Accord Street and Bon Accord Terrace.
During certain points in the footage the woman could be seen holding hands with the accused and on one occasion the pair disappear from view into a doorway.
They emerge moments later and are seen holding hands before they turn on to Bon Accord Terrace. It was then that the woman claimed she was raped.
Giving evidence she told jurors she eventually managed to escape Mr Clark, 34, after she lied to him and said she would go back to his hotel room.
She claimed she fled from the lane and ran straight into a taxi as he was fastening his trousers. She then ordered the driver to take her to the nearest police station where she told officers she had been raped.
