A MAN has been cleared of raping a sleeping woman on a sofa after a fancy dress party in a North Yorkshire village.

Daniel Price, 20, of Charles Street, Selby, fought back tears as a jury at York Crown Court found him not guilty of rape within half an hour of beginning their deliberations.

Price had been accused of carrying out the attack in the living room of a house in a village near Selby after he and the woman had previously slept on separate sofas in the room, after the party had finished.

The jury of seven women and five men was told the incident happened when the woman was sleeping off the effects of drinking at the party, at which she had got “wasted” and been sick in the bathroom.

The woman claimed she did not give consent for sex at any stage. She said she was “stirring” from a sleep when she found Price was having sex with her.

She said she said to him:”What the **** are you doing?” but he pretended to be asleep and made out he did not know what she was talking about.

She said she grabbed her belongings and ran upstairs, where she told her friends what had happened, while Price abruptly left the house.

She claimed that earlier on, during the party, Price had make a joke about rape.

Price denied making any such joke about such a serious matter, and said the sex on the sofa was consensual and the woman was lying.

York Press:

He said she had invited him to come over and join her on her sofa and asked him to “play with” her and later asked him: “Can we do more?”

He told the jury that if she had told him to stop, he would have done.

He said that just seconds after they started intercourse, she suddenly “flipped” and he realised then she did not want sex and immediately stopped.

“I couldn’t understand why her mood had changed so quickly,” he said.

He was concerned he might be accused of rape and left the house. “It panicked me a little bit. I felt shocked,” he said.

*The trial was originally due to take place in November but Price did not answer bail and turn up to court, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.