A Colchester man accused of raping a woman from Ipswich he met on a dating site has been cleared by a jury.

Before Ipswich Crown Court on Tuesday was Matthew Edgerton, who is of De Grey Road, Colchester.

The 31-year-old had denied raping the alleged victim in March.

During the trial, the court heard that the woman met Edgerton on a dating website and after a couple of weeks of conversation he came to see her.

They went back to her flat and later had consensual sex.

The next day the woman arranged for a friend to come over and she went out with Edgerton to buy food and drinks.

The friend arrived at the property at about 6pm and everyone got on very well, the court was told.

However, the alleged victim said to police there was the occasional red flag because one minute Edgerton would appear to be fine and then the next minute really drunk.

She added that he got “over familiar” with her friend at some points during the evening.

Eventually, Edgerton fell asleep on the sofa and at 2am the friend left.

Edgerton and the alleged victim began having sex and at that point it was consensual.

However, Edgerton had then allegedly started to strangle the woman and she said  "no, stop" and tried to push him away but he had ignored her protests and pinned her down.

She told her friend about the alleged incident the next month.

Edgerton was subsequently arrested and answered "no comment" to questions.

The jury in the trial retired for deliberations on Monday and returned its not guilty verdict for the charge on Tuesday.