Spitting Into the Wind

God, how I wish I could have been on this jury. What were these people thinking to allow this man to get away with a story like this? What if the girl in question was 12 instead of 15? Would he still have walked? I'm dumbfounded and disgusted.

A Britich RAF mechanic who claimed he was sleepwalking when he had sex with a 15-year-old girl has been cleared of rape.

Senior Aircraftsman Kenneth Ecott, 26, wept after a jury took two hours to find he was not responsible for his actions. Mr Ecott did not deny having sex with the girl, but said he had no memory of it happening. Instead he insisted he had a condition known as sexsomnia in which sufferers carry out indecent acts in their sleep.

It was this affliction that made him climb naked on top of the girl at a friend's birthday party sleepover in Poole, Dorset, the Bournemouth Crown Court heard. The girl screamed when she awoke, and the man was said to have confessed to the girl's family and apologised for having sex with her. When he was arrested in his barracks at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, he told police he was prone to sleepwalking.

He claimed to have been in a state of automatism while with the girl, meaning he was not aware of his actions. His girlfriend told the court that he had fondled her in bed while asleep.