Outlander actor Greggory Odjig bowed to a court after a jury cleared him of rape allegations.
The Canadian actor, 47, had been accused of raping a woman in her 30s in a suite in Glasgow’s Bath Street.
The prosecution claimed the woman was intoxicated and asleep or unconscious so incapable of giving or withholding consent.
He had climbed into bed with her after she passed out but the High Court in Stirling heard “not a nanogramme” of his DNA was found on intimate swabs taken from her after the alleged incident in May 2021.
A jury of nine women and six men took less than an hour to unanimously find the charge against Odjig not proven.
Judge Lady Poole told him: “You are discharged and are free to go.”
Odjig, who wore traditional motifs on his jacket and deerskin tie, including a Golden Eagle brooch signifying closeness to deity, had denied rape.
Outside court, Odjig, who played the role of Satehoronies in Outlander’s fourth season, said: ““I have always known I was not guilty.
“There are three things that cannot be hidden.
“You cannot hide our grandfather the sun. You cannot hide our grandmother the moon. And you cannot hide the truth.”
Leaving the building with his female partner, who had accompanied him from Canada for the trial, he hit out at Scotland’s controversial not proven verdict, which he said would hinder attempts to resurrect his career.
He said: “I have tried many times since this started to find work but every door is always closed to me.
“A not proven verdict will make it more difficult to my career back.
“I would have preferred not guilty, because that is what I am.”
During a five-day trial, the alleged victim said Odjig had been a friend of hers for years and she had met him on the day in question and gone back to his apartment with other friends and family.
She said she had only a glass-and-a-half of Cava – although she originally told police it could have been more – then passed out.
She said she woke up to find her leggings in a suitcase and Odjog and another Candian actor, Glenn Gould, arguing.
Odjig told his counsel, Donald Findlay KC, the alleged victim had been sick and asked him to stay with her, so he got into bed and lay down beside her.
He said he “definitely did not” have any sexual contact with her, though he admitted there had been “spooning” and he had put his hand in the waistband of her leggings for “comfort”.
He said it was not true the woman was unconscious and the claim she had nothing on her bottom half was “lies”.
Mr Gould – detective Jerry Commanda in the 2017 TV series Cardinal – said he told Odjig: “Smarten up, what the hell’s wrong with you, you’ve got to learn to have respect for women” and things became “kind of chaotic”.
Mr Gould said he hit Odjig with “a couple of upper cuts” and pinned him to the floor face down as the woman and others fled the apartment to call police.
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