Overview

• The Teesside Crown Court jury returned not-guilty verdicts on rape, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and two sexual-assault counts.
• A judge had earlier directed a not-guilty finding on a separate false imprisonment charge at the close of the prosecution case.
• Prosecutors alleged the offences occurred after Butters pulled into a remote layby while driving the woman home from a night out in Darlington.
• In a police-recorded interview, the complainant said she reluctantly complied with a sex act to end the encounter quickly.
• Butters, 24, of Mayfield Crescent, Eaglescliffe, testified that all activity was consensual and said the woman initiated the intimate acts.