AN ALEXANDRIA man accused of sexually assaulting a woman while she slept has been cleared by a jury.

Engineer Robert Kirkpatrick, of Hillbank Street, was alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as she slept and incapable of giving or withholding her consent.

The 35-year-old alleged victim told Dumbarton Sheriff Court she had asked Mr Kirkpatrick to help her move some wardrobes. When he arrived on Sunday, March 6, 2016, she said he was shaking because he was an alcoholic and so offered him a vodka and coke to steady himself.

She had one sip of her own and then felt unwell and told Mr Kirkpatrick she needed to lie down as she felt an epileptic seizure coming on.

He brought her a quilt at her request and she then passed out on the couch in the living room. When she awoke hours later, she screamed with a "sharp uncomfortable pain and Robert had his hands inside me".

She said: "I let out a big massive scream straight away. I think I shouted, 'What are you doing ya beasty?'"

A neighbour then phoned to ask if she was okay and she replied "yes no, yes no" five or six times. They neighbour told the woman to phone her mother, who then asked to speak to Mr Kirkpatrick and told him to go see her.

Under cross examination by Mr Kirkpatrick's solicitor, Roddy Boag, the woman said she'd taken three unprescribed Valium the night before, five the next morning, then had the alcohol and a joint with Mr Kirkpatrick.

Mr Boag went through her initial police statement, which included other physical contact of repeatedly rubbing the woman's leg and thigh - fiscal depute Sarah Healing withdrew that allegation at the end of the Crown case.

The woman said she had no recollection of Mr Kirkpatrick putting 10 Valium down the toilet or an argument over her drug taking.

She told Mr Boag: "It was because I woke up and his hands were inside me."

The woman approached police in the street on the Tuesday with the allegation of what happened.

Constable Sara Cunningham, who attended at the women's home and began the investigations, told a jury of 10 men and five women: "She was getting herself upset by trying to speak about it. I managed to calm her down a bit to get the details. By the nature of the offence CID were contacted and she was told they would come to see her."

A joint minute read out to the jury revealed that a medical examination carried out on the woman did not produce any evidence of value given the passage of time. She told police she was "tired" and did not allow an examination to be carried out immediately after the alleged attack. The jury was also told that the woman's pants, trousers and duvet did not reveal any of Kirkpatrick's DNA.

Kirkpatrick, quizzed by defence lawyer Roddy Boag, said: "I had met her at her mother's home a few weeks earlier. I was asked to come to her house to help move a neighbours wardrobes to her home. I was invited in for a drink. Both of us were drinking vodka and coke. We had a drink and a joint. I said to her I thought she was on something else and she mentioned she had taken Valium. I said it was poison but she didn't seem to care.

"We had three vodkas each. She gave me the Valium and I flushed it down the toilet.

"I initially offered to help renovate her flat but my attitude changed because of the Valium."

Mr Boag then asked Kirkpatrick: "Did you, at any stage sit down beside her?

He replied: "No, not beside her, at the other end of the couch."

Asked "did you sexually assault her", he replied "no."

Cross examined by Ms Healing, Kirkpatrick was asked: "Why, all of a sudden did she call you a grass and a beast?

"I don't know, " replied the accused, "At no time was she lying down and she wasn't sleeping."

Ms Healing then asked: "Why, a few minutes after you left her flat did she turn up at her neighbours naked from the waist down?

Kirkpatrick answered: "I don't know, she was fully dressed when I left."

A jury, following the three day trial took just 45 minutes to find the case against the 55-year-old "no proven". The jury foreman confirmed that the verdict was by a majority.

Sheriff Maxwell Hendry then told Kirkpatrick, who showed no emotion throughout the trial, that he was free to leave the dock.

Kirkpatrick left court without making any comment.