A former student at Kent University has been cleared of raping a drunken fellow student who he said begged him to have sex.

Michael Ainsworth, 20, who had denied rape, was acquitted by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court on Tuesday and discharged.

Mr Ainsworth, of Church Lane, Chalden, Surrey, told the court the night he had sex with the woman in a ditch on the university campus, was at her instigation and he never forced himself on her.

The court heard the woman, now 21, was very drunk having been out with friends and had wandered off, barefoot and alone and fallen into the dtich where Mr Ainsworth heard her crying and went to help.

He had spent the evening with a university friend and was going back to his accommodation at Nickle Court when he heard the woman and found her lying on her side face down crying in the ditch.

She told him she was upset because her boyfriend had dumped her. He said he repeatedly offered to take her home but she wanted to stay where she was so he stayed with her thinking it would be bad to just leave her.

She was wearing a coat and low cut top but nothing except a thong on her lower body he said. She told him she had been raped but didn’t say when and he wasn’t sure if it was true.

They talked for about 40 minutes which calmed her down and she made repeated calls to her boyfriend but was quite rude to him, said Mr Ainsworth.

“After about 40 minutes she decided she wanted to have sex with me. She was saying things like 'do you want me’ and it was quite persistent,” he told the court.

He suggested they went to her home or back to his but she wanted to stay there.

“I was saying no because of the circumstances but she was persistent, so I agreed.” They had sex twice.

She then wanted to go to the toilet and went off to some bushes where he found her again on the phone to her boyfriend.

When she finished on the phone she again asked Mr Ainsworth for sex but he was reluctant because they were nearer houses. He felt a bit embarrassed and stopped when she asked him to.

He said he never forced her and although she had been drinking, didn’t think she was too drunk to have sex with him.

He invited her back for coffee and carried her part of the way because she had no shoes but then she told him to put her down and became abusive.

Eventually he left her but when in bed, could hear her outside and shouted out to ask if she was all right and again she was abusive.

The following day he saw police taping off the drainage ditch at the back of Densted Court and spoke to an officer but didn’t mention having sex because he was too embarrassed.

He then realised he should mention it thinking the tape may have something to do with what the woman told him and was on his way back to the police when they called him.