A jury has acquitted a Galway man who was charged with raping a student the morning after they met in a Sligo night club and had consensual sex together.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the complainant, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping the woman (32) in a flat in Sligo in December 2010.

During the four day trial, the woman gave evidence that she met the man in the night club and went back to his flat at around 3am where they had consensual sex twice. She said he wore a condom both times.

She said the next morning she wanted to leave but the man wanted to have sex and he raped her.

Under cross examination the woman agreed with a defence submission that she was "very much in control and in the driving seat" over the course of the night and admitted slagging the man about not knowing about foreplay.

She agreed with Sean Gillane SC, defending, that she demonstrated what the accused should do when he did not seem to understand.

After deliberating for a little under one hour a jury of nine men and three women returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.

The woman told Alex Sammon SC, prosecuting, that on the morning of the alleged rape she told the accused she wanted to leave and said she though he seemed very presumptuous about what was happening, because there was a condom on the bed.

She said she was not going to have sex with him and he started to cuddle her and they kissed by consent.

"After that he got on top of me, I told him a number of times to get off me, he got on top of me very suddenly, I was lying on my back. This was only a couple of minutes, I told him to stop and get off me two or three times and he eventually stopped".

She said the accused apologised and she asked him why and he said it was because he had not listened to her. She said she had a cigarette afterwards and this was “"out of shock".

She agreed with a submission by Mr Gillane that the accused looked different the next morning to how he did the night before and said she had a lot to drink that night.

She later added that she thought he was a nice man but that opinion changed after the alleged rape.

The woman agreed that the accused walked her across the road to get a taxi and that her friends later joked with her about the situation.