A FATHER wept with relief in the dock of York Crown Court as he was acquitted of raping an epileptic woman.

The jury of eight men and four women took only half-an-hour to return their verdict at the end of a four-day trial.

Stuart Niven, 43, gasped and started to cry as the foreman declared him "not guilty". He was still in tears as he left court and hugged his legal team to thank them.

Members of his family were in court to support him.

Earlier he had told the jury: "I am not a rapist," and told them of the pressure he had been under since he was arrested last May.

Mr Niven, of Acomb, York, had denied the charge throughout the investigation and court proceedings that started when the woman claimed to police that he had raped her in her bathroom late at night.

Mr Niven agreed that they had had sex, but that the woman had initiated it and wanted it.

The jury heard that a doctor had described her as a "manipulative" woman who exaggerated her epileptic symptoms, particularly when social services were involved.

Medical notes read out to the jury included an entry that, when she was in her teens, she had been angry that a local boy was not prosecuted following her allegation that he sexually assaulted her.

Years later, health staff including a doctor had recorded that she told them her husband, and possibly another man - not Mr Niven - had raped her, but in the witness box she denied ever making the allegations.

She also denied being manipulative, exaggerating her symptoms, or being angry over the boy.

Mr Niven began his final day in court by apologising for breaking down under cross-examination the previous afternoon.

"I have been in this trial and on bail for seven months," he said. "I have been under a lot of pressure and I am getting somewhat confused with everything around me."

He told the jury that both he and the woman were to blame for what happened in her bathroom on May 25. "It was just a stupid, ridiculous act that we did," he said. The jury heard that both were in relationships with other people at the time.

Updated: 12:42 Friday, January 10, 2003