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A South Liverpool teacher bowed his head as he was found not guilty of raping a woman following a drunken night out.

Childwall Academy teacher Patrick Breen, 30, had tears in his eyes when a judge told him he was free to leave the dock following unanimous not guilty verdicts from the jury.

Mr Breen, who is a PE teacher and head of year at the school where he has worked for seven years, had been accused of raping a woman who was incapable of standing up after drinking vodka and prosecco all night.

His week-long trial heard how Patrick Breen and the complainant had been drinking in Liverpool city centre bars before heading for his home on Southampton Drive, Garston.

Jurors heard the woman had to be carried out of the taxi after “going floppy” with drink and was left on the sofa in the living room.

The next morning she told police she had been raped twice in the night but was so drunk she couldn’t say who had done it.

The two men at the house were arrested and Breen, who slept in his bed with his four months pregnant wife, denied any wrongdoing.

But forensic tests confirmed the pair had had intercourse and he then told police he remembered having sex with her and that she had "come on" to him.

He told his barrister: “There’s absolutely no doubt whatsoever in my mind that it was 100% consensual.”

Prosecutors said it was rape because she was too drunk to consent but the jury of four men and seven women took just over three hours to disagree and he was released from the dock.

As he stepped out of court female supporters in the public gallery wept with joy.

Judge Denis Watson, QC, thanked the jury for their service and said they had “maintained an objective and hard headed approach to the evidence."

Nicholas Johnson, QC, said Mr Breen had paid his own legal costs but the judge said he had no power to make an order to repay them.