An Angus taxi driver accused of raping a female passenger has walked free from court.
Richard Donnelly had been on trial at Aberdeen High Court accused of raping the woman while she was incapable of giving or withholding consent while under the influence of alcohol.
Donnelly, whose address was given in court papers as Hospitalfield Gardens, Arbroath, denied raping the woman in his taxi in a wooded area near Charleton Road in Montrose, on November 3 2012.
A jury took almost three hours to return a majority verdict of not proven.
The 51-year-old cried in the dock on hearing the verdict.
Lady Scott, who oversaw the trial, told Donnelly he was free to go before dismissing the jury.
Giving evidence on the first day of the trial, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had been out in Montrose with friends.
During questioning by advocate depute Allan Nicol, the woman said she could not remember anything beyond a certain point in the night.
The court was shown CCTV images of the woman leaving a bar and getting into Donnelly’s taxi.
The woman’s mother broke down in tears during her evidence as she told the court of seeing her daughter, who she described as being “unconscious” through drink, in the taxi with her underwear lowered.
Donnelly said he had “succumbed to temptation” after the woman made a sexual remark towards him.
He told the court: “She was quite serious about having some kind of sexual encounter with me.”