BRAMPTON — A former Peel Regional Police officer accused of raping a mentally ill woman was found not guilty today of sexual assault.

Abel Gomes, 25, a married father of two, left Brampton court a free man this afternoon after Justice Katherine McLeod gave her ruling.

He was accused of sexually assaulting the woman, then 21, who cannot be identified, in the basement of her Brampton home back on Dec. 14, 2012, while he was off duty. The province's Special Investigations Unit charged Gomes after a lengthy probe. The SIU was contacted by Peel police regarding a complaint of a sexual nature against Gomes.

The former officer, who had been on the force less than a year, was fired while he was still in his probationary period after his DNA was found on the woman, court heard.

But, defence lawyer Joseph Markson praised the judge's ruling, saying she applied the law to the facts and gave a "thorough and reasoned" judgment on why she acquitted Gomes.

"Justice was done and we're grateful," Markson said this afternoon. "My client was always confident in the administration of justice. It's difficult and it has been an ordeal. He's relived of course."

It was the defence's case throughout the trial that while Gomes' actions may have been the result of "moral misjudgement," he and the woman were attracted to each other and engaged in consensual sex.

Gomes testified in his own defence.

Crown prosecutor Peter Scrutton told the judge that Gomes threatened to send the woman, who was bipolar and suffered from ADHD, back to a psychiatric hospital before sexually assaulting her.