A TEENAGER has been cleared of twice raping a middle-aged woman who was on a night out in Burnley.

Reece Renton, 19, was found not guilty of two charges of rape, after a trial at Burnley Crown Court.

The defendant, of Pine Street, Burnley, had denied the allegations and told the jury sex was consensual.

The alleged victim had claimed she was thrown in mud, told to perform a sex act and hit by the defendant, who then had sex with her.

She told the court she had been frightened and was left in shock and dazed.

The defendant told the jury the woman started the encounter and there was no violence at all.

His barrister Tina Landale had suggested in the hearing that the woman had been talking to Renton in a pub and had asked him back to her home for a drink.

Miss Landale said the alleged victim had been flattered by the attentions of a young man and had had a bruised ego and hurt feelings after Renton was ‘ungallant’ and had just had got up and walked after sex, leaving her on the ground.

The barrister claimed the woman had begun to regret what happened after she had been ‘abandoned’ and was crying out of shame and humiliation.

She told the alleged victim: “It wasn't true that you had been raped by this person.”