Jury finds Keighley dad not guilty of attempted rape in park

Graham Butterfield was unaminously acquitted in a matter of minutes by a jury at Bradford Crown Court today.

Mr Butterfield thanked the jurors as he left the dock after the trial which lasted four days.

The jury was discharged from returning a verdict on a charge of causing actual bodily harm and Judge Colin Burn delivered a formal verdict of not guilty.

Mr Butterfield was also found not guilty of an alternative charge of sexually assaulting the woman.

The woman, a single mother in her 30s, accused him of pulling down her clothes in a struggle in which her ankle was broken in Lund Park at 6am on February 6 last year.

She had met Mr Butterfield, then living at Central Avenue, Keighley, for the first time at a house party after both had been on separate nights out in the town.

He told the jury they left the party together after he offered to show her where the nearest taxi office was.

He said he pointed the woman in the right direction but she followed him over the road into the park.

In the park, she put her arm round his waist as he took a short cut home to his wife and child.

Mr Butterfield said that it was dark, cold and raining and he had been drinking. He had no sexual interest in the woman.

When they reached the fenced off play area, she “went nuts” and attacked him.

He told the jury he was forced to physically restrain the “half-crazed” woman who was accusing him of trapping her and trying to rape her.

Mr Butterfield said: “She started freaking out and going nuts.”

She threw her hands about and tried to get away from him.

He was forced to restrain her but he denied any sort of sexual assault.

He told the jury he did not know how her ankle came to be broken but her arms must have been bruised when he grabbed her to defend himself.

Mr Butterfield said he offered to show the woman where he lived after she attacked him and invited her to call the police if she thought he had done anything wrong.