Wicklow man is cleared of rape

A Co Wicklow man was cleared yesterday of raping his former girlfriend in a laneway after a disco. A jury in the Central Criminal Court took two hours to find the 21-year-old man not guilty of raping the teenager in the early hours of April 27th, 1996. Mr Justice Carney discharged the man. During the three-day trial, the man told the court she had consented to sexual intercourse but she denied this.