A 43-YEAR-OLD man was cleared today of raping a woman while she slept in his home after a drink amd drug session.

Simon Mayo, formerly of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, but now of White Lion Park, Malmesbury, had denied raping the woman in 2011.

After a three-day trial the jury of six men and six women at Gloucester Crown Court found him not guilty.

The court had been told that the woman knew Mr Mayo because they were both customers of a pub in Berkeley and on the night of the alleged rape she and another friend went back to his flat for more drinks after leaving the pub.

Later, after falling asleep in his home, she woke up to find he was on top of her having sex, it was alleged. He was also accused of taking photographs of her naked.

The jury took just two hours to find Mr Mayo not guilty and he was discharged.

It was not until March 2013 that the woman first alleged she had been raped. She made the allegation to a friend.

In May that year she confided in another friend about what had happened - and then in June told her mother while the two of them were watching a TV programme about the mis-treatment of women, the prosecution said.

Richard Posner, prosecuting, said: "She asked her mother 'If you were asleep and you woke up and someone was inside you would it be rape?' Her mother said 'yes'.

"She asked if her daughter knew someone that had happened to and she said it had happened to her.

"It was that morning in June 2013 that the police became involved and the defendant was arrested. He said that a few peoople had gone back to his flat that night and everyone was drinking and taking drugs.

"He said he went to bed because he was tired and there were people still in the flat.

"He said he remembered being woken up by the woman in the early hours and she was 'quite out of her face" and demanding to leave.

"He denied ever having any sexual relationship with her and denied raping her. He knows of no good explanation for why she would accuse him of such a crime."

The woman conceded she had been to Mr Mayo's flat before and had spent the night there, sometimes even sleeping in his bed with him, but only as a friend and nothing had ever happened and she had trusted him.