A hypnotherapist accused of raping one of his patients while she was under hypnosis has been cleared of all charges.

Geoffrey Shaw, 70, was said to have controlled his middle-aged patient by hypnotising her before carrying out a series of rapes on her at his home.

Within two hours of retiring to deliberate, a jury at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court acquitted Shaw, of Grange Road, Cottingley, of six counts of rape and one count of indecent assault.

Leaving court hand-in-hand with his wife of 47 years, he said: "I am so relieved. It has been four-and-a-half years of hell."

During his six-day trial, the court had been told that the victim, who cannot be named, was raped several times while visiting Shaw's home-run practice between 1986 and 1989.

She did not tell police until 1998 and detectives struggled for evidence before she discovered a skirt she had worn at his house. Tests revealed patches of Shaw's semen on the skirt.

In the witness box, Shaw told the eight men and four women of the jury he was impotent at the time the alleged offences were said to have taken place.

He had been unable to have sex since early 1980 but may, however, have left semen on a toilet seat, he said.