A 26-year-old man who admitted "pleasuring" a teenage girl has been cleared of raping her.

The jury at Bradford Crown Court took a little more four hours to find Darren Fellows not guilty of rape and two charges of sexual assault.

During his trial, the prosecution alleged that he touched the girl's breasts under her clothing and further indecently assaulted her during a party.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was pinned to a sofa by Fellows and briefly raped, said prosecutor Richard Newbury.

But Fellows, of Thornbury Avenue, Thornbury, Bradford, told the court he was laid on the living room sofa as the girl was sitting in a nearby chair, talking on her mobile phone.

He said she then asked him if he was all right or needed a blanket. He moved his legs and she sat down at the side of him.

"We began talking and we ended up kissing," he said. "I asked her to turn the telly off but she said she needed the telly on in case someone came down, as they would know what we were up to."

Fellows stated they were kissing and cuddling, touching each other all over. "We were grabbing each other - we were just pleasuring each other I would call it," he added.

The girl's phone, which was on the chair, suddenly rang and he passed it to her. She either cancelled the call or it stopped ringing. He asked her if it was her boyfriend who had just rung. She then said "Get off me" and stormed off, he said.

During cross-examination, Fellows admitted saying to the girl: "What you doing here with me with your boyfriend on the phone? What sort of a girl does that?"

But he rejected prosecution claims that he had fancied the girl and taken advantage of her while she was crying.