A 25-year-old man has been cleared of raping a teenager in an Otley churchyard.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court unanimously acquitted James Wardlow of pulling the girl to the ground and forcing her to have sex with him.

Mr Wardlow, a trained sports instructor, of Wheatley Road, Ben Rhydding, near Ilkley, always maintained that the 19-year-old consented to sex.

The girl, who lives in Otley, told the court that Mr Wardlow seized hold of her when they were behind a tree in Bridge Street church-yard late on June 11.

She told how they met for the first time out-side the nearby Suburban bar and began kissing. She willingly went over the wall with him into the grounds of the churchyard but after he had sex with her she claimed she had been raped.

The girl had been drinking wine and a cocktail that night and she was escorted from the bar by staff after rowing with a former boyfriend and pushing a waitress.

Mr Wardlow, of good character, told the jury that he and the girl kissed and lay down together on the grass.

After he had sex with her she shouted at him: "Why have you done this?"

He added: "I was pretty shocked when she became distressed. I couldn't understand why she all of a sudden became so changed in her mood.

"I wanted to console and comfort her and tried to understand what the problem was."

But a passerby arrived on the scene, saw that the girl was distressed and suggested that Mr Wardlow left the area.

He handed himself in to the police a week later to make a statement about the alleged rape.

"I've never forced anyone to have sex before and I didn't then," he told the jury.

Earlier this week, Mr Wardlow told the court he was shocked when the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, became distressed.

He said: "I couldn't understand why she all of a sudden became so changed in her mind."

At the time of the alleged assault, police appealed for the public's help in tracing the man.