A Kiwi teaching assistant who was in the UK as part of his gap year has been cleared of raping a female colleague at a boarding school where they both worked.
Arthur Caughley, 20, who as a child starred in a children's drama series on New Zealand television, had been accused of attacking the woman in her room at the school in South West Herts in January last year.
But this week at St Albans Crown Court on the second day of a trial, a judge directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts.
It happened after the prosecution announced that because new evidence had come to light, it was dropping the case against Mr Caughley.
The jury were asked to bring in not guilty verdicts in respect of two charges of rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration which he had denied.
Watching in the public gallery were friends and family of Mr Caughley who had travelled from New Zealand for the trial.
As the case came to its dramatic end they clapped with delight that his ordeal was over.
Mr Caughley, from Wellington, played Erin from the Barbs, an environmentally aware tribe that lived in a forest in drama series The New Tomorrow.
He had been accused of going into the woman's room at night and attacking her after telling her he wanted a cuddle. Both he and the woman had just started working at the school and had separate rooms there.
Days later she told someone at the school what was alleged to have happened and three days later, on February 11, 2013, Mr Caughley was suspended.
When questioned by the school's deputy head, he said that sex between him and the woman had been consensual.
Before he left the court, Recorder William Featherby, QC, told Mr Caughley "you leave this court entirely free and completely acquitted. You can put it all behind you. I know it's been a nightmare".
South Beds News Agency