A STUDENT accused of sexually abusing another young man after a night out on the town has been cleared by a jury.

Oliver Shann, from Darlington, insisted the encounter was consensual, and tearfully told a court that he has since had to examine his sexuality.

The 21-year-old initially told police that nothing at all had happened between the pair in the house in Middlesbrough in the early hours of June 14 last year.

But when scientific evidence proved that was not the case, he said the contact between them had been with the consent of his accuser.

Mr Shann said he had been lying and chatting with the other young man for a while before anything happened, but admitted that there had been no sexual talk.

He denied claims from prosecutor Ian West that his victim was asleep or in a drunken daze when the alleged assault happened.

Breaking down several times during cross-examination, the accused said: “I didn’t plan it out, it just happened. It was a spontaneous thing.”

Mr West put it to him: “What you did in that bedroom was to try it on.”

Mr Shann answered: “What happened in that bedroom was consensual.”

He added: “I would not want to do that to him. He was not asleep. He was awake throughout the whole thing.”

A jury of eight men and four women heard how the accuser got up and left when he realised what had happened, looked on the internet for ‘what to do if you are sexually assaulted’ and dialled 101.

Mr Shann and others at the house were woken when four police officers went around the rooms, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Asked by Mr West why the other young man would report what had happened, he replied: “All I can think of is he has kind of panicked and was embarrassed, and wanted to get out of there.”

In a video-recorded interview with police which was played to the jury, his accuser said he was half-asleep when it felt as though he was being touched in a sexual manner.

Asked by a detective, how he felt, he said: “Terrified. I just froze originally. I wish I had shouted or said something, but I was more just confused.”

A group had gone drinking in Middlesbrough town centre, the court heard.

After “crashing” at a house, all but one of them went to a bedroom – some on the bed, and some on the floor under opened-out sleeping bags, including Mr Shann and his alleged victim.

Mr Shann, of Hutton Avenue, Darlington, was found not guilty of two charges, one of assault by penetration and another of sexual assault.