A MAN who was convicted, then acquitted, of rape at a retrial, has been found not guilty of a second, similar offence.
A jury at Reading Crown Court has found Arron Jackson not guilty of sexually and assaulting and trying to rape a sleeping woman.
In a separate case, in 2021, another jury convicted Mr Jackson of raping a different woman while she was sleeping.
Mr Jackson, now aged 30 and whose address was given by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service as Ox Drove, Burghclere, was sentenced to six years and six months imprisonment and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
That offence was said to have happened in 2010.
But his conviction was overturned at a subsequent retrial.
However, this month, Mr Jackson went on trial for allegedly trying to rape another woman while she apparently slept.
Those allegations stemmed from two nights last July.
The prosecution claimed that Mr Jackson had sexually assaulted the woman at Weald Rise, Tilehurst, where he was living at the time, by groping her and trying to have sex when she did not consent.
Edward Lucas, prosecuting, said the woman had been dozing when she felt Mr Jackson groping her.
Mr Jackson then put his hand inside her underwear and indecently assaulted her with his fingers, the woman said.
She went on to explain how Mr Jackson had then tried to pull her trousers down from behind.
Mr Lucas said “she could feel his erect penis” as he tried to push it inside her.
He added: “She managed to turn away, then pretended to wake up, giving the impression she didn’t know what had happened.
“He said: ‘I just wanted a hug,’ or words to that effect.”
The woman, who had nowhere else to stay at the time, said the same thing happened the following night.
She later told police she “would rather die” than have voluntary sexual relations with Mr Jackson.
But, giving evidence from the witness box, Mr Jackson said no sexual encounter took place at all.
Nadia Chbat, defending, told jurors: “At the beginning of this trial you may have thought: ‘what a strange man – how awful this is.’
“Proving a negative is a very hard thing to do.
“The prosecution say ‘why would she make it up?’
“Well, members of the jury, Mr Jackson doesn’t have to prove it’s false.
“And we don’t know why.
“Mr Jackson can’t tell you; he can’t help you with that.”
Mr Jackson was acquitted of all charges.
