A man attempted to shake hands with a judge today after a jury acquitted him of raping a woman he met just hours earlier at a Halloween party.

Brian Maddix, of King Street, Gillingham, had shaken hands with two dock officers and was walking free when he went towards the bench with his outstretched hand.

But Judge Jeremy Carey told him: "No, you go and celebrate elsewhere."

Maidstone Crown Court heard the woman and a friend had accepted a lift home to Herne Bay from Mr Maddix, 26, and a friend they met at the Source Bar in the town on October 28 last year.

But they ended up at a one-bedroom flat in Rainham after the driver, introduced to them earlier in the evening as Julian Pearce and referred to as JP, said he was too tired to take them home.

Prosecutor Danny Moore said the two women did not have enough money for the £140 fare they were being quoted. They then decided to stay.

Julian - Mr Maddix - climbed into bed behind one of woman.

Mr Moore said the woman fell asleep. The two girls were in the middle with the men on each side.

She claimed she awoke to find Mr Maddix having sex with her. She said she got up and she and her friend went to the bathroom. They left the flat and went home by train.

The woman met up with her "on-off" boyfriend and alleged she had been raped. It was reported to the police a week later.

Mr Maddix, who denied the charge, said he smoked cannabis at the flat and they were all chatting in the bedroom. It was not in his mind to have sex with the woman - but the woman initiated it, he claimed.

After they got into bed, he continued, the woman pushed her bottom against him. He pulled her trousers down and had intercourse with her.

"She was awake," he said. "She did nothing to indicate she didn't want me to do what I was doing."

He added he was shocked when he was later accused of rape.