A man accused of raping his cousin was acquitted by a Supreme Court jury yesterday.

Assistant Justice Carlisle Greaves told the 29-year-old man he was free to go after the seven-woman, five-man jury returned its verdict after deliberating for more than an hour.

The man remained motionless in the witness box as the verdict was delivered and declined to comment afterwards.

He had been accused of attacking the woman, a 28-year-old teacher, in his bedroom in December, 2001, but he said he had merely draped his body over her after they both fell asleep after a night of drinking and watching TV.

His lawyer Craig Attridge had characterised the accusation, which was made nearly 11 months after the incident, as a bid by his accuser to get back at the defendant's mother after she had fallen out with her.

And he had questioned why the complainant had quite happily moved back into the defendant's house just months after the alleged attack.

Mr. Attridge had said the incident had been a drunken misunderstanding which had been blown out of all proportion.

The defendant, who has a clean record and has never been charged with any other offence, told the court he had been left "dumbfounded" and "confused" when the incident occurred almost three years ago.

And he said he was surprised when the Police arrested him for serious sexual assault.

He told the court: "These allegations are not true and I couldn't believe that they were interviewing me and charging me for this."

The man said he had been asleep and thinking of his girlfriend when he rolled over and was partially on top of the woman, who then woke up and pushed him off before fleeing the room.

He denied straddling the woman, as she had testified, saying only part of his body was over her.

And he told the court a letter of apology he had written to the complainant was not an apology for raping her, as she had testified.