A MAN accused of rape and voyeurism has been found not guilty by a jury.

John Walters, 24, of School Way, Blackwood, was cleared of the two counts following a seven-day trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

He was acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman and filming her without her knowing on his iPhone shortly after they’d met for the first time in a pub.

The defendant told the police following his arrest he was “horrified” by the claims made against him.

Jurors heard how Mr Walters had met the woman at the end of the night in a pub in the Blackwood area during the summer of 2020.

Both the complainant and defendant admitted having drank a sizeable amount of alcohol during that day.

The woman had also taken cocaine.

The prosecution alleged Mr Walters "lured" her into bushes when she had been unable to give her consent and had made a video as “a trophy”.

Mr Walters, giving evidence during his trial, said the complainant had followed him after he left the pub to make his way home.

He said they had been “flirting” as they walked and they had kissed before the woman gave him oral sex.

Mr Walters told the jury they then had sexual intercourse for about a minute or two before she gave him oral sex for a second time.

His barrister Dyfed Llion Thomas asked him: “You filmed the sexual intercourse, or part of it, did you ask her whether she was happy with you filming it?”

Mr Walters replied that he did.

Mr Thomas put it to him: “Did you think that she wanted to have sex with you?”

The defendant answered: “Yes.”

“At any point during the sexual intercourse, or indeed any of the sexual activity, did she indicate to you by action or by words that she didn’t want to have sexual intercourse with you?” asked Mr Thomas.

Mr Walters told him: “No.”

Mr Thomas said: “The case against you, you see Mr Walters, what the prosecution are saying, is that she was so drunk that you lured her down into a car park area and had sex with her when she could not consent.

“Did you believe she was consenting?”

He said that he thought she was.

Heath Edwards, prosecuting, accused Mr Walters of having "taken advantage" of the woman before he “just tossed her aside”.

The defendant told him that this was untrue.

The jury took two hours and 30 minutes to find him not guilty of both counts.

After he was acquitted, Judge David Wynn Morgan told the defendant: “Mr Walters you are discharged and you may leave the dock.”

The judge thanked the jury for their public service.

He praised both the prosecution and defence by telling them the case had been conducted in an “exemplary fashion by both sides”.