A MAN accused of rape was cleared by a jury yesterday after claiming he suffered from sleepwalking.

James Bilton, 22, said that he could not remember the alleged attack at his flat in York and that he must have been asleep at the time.

The bar worker, who told police that he had sleepwalked since the age of 13, was cleared of three counts of rape by a jury at York Crown Court after the week-long trial.

The acquittal coincides with fresh moves by law officers to boost the conviction rate for rape cases.

During the trial, the jury was told that the alleged victim knew Mr Bilton. After a night out with her in March this year, Mr Bilton put her to bed in his flat while he slept on the sofa.

The 22-year-old woman said that she woke to find her trousers had been taken off and Mr Bilton assaulting her. She denied she consented to sex.

Mr Bilton said he had no knowledge of the attack but he had a history of sleepwalking which ran in the family.

He could only remember waking up on the sofa and was “completely oblivious” as to what had allegedly happened, the court was told.

A sleep expert, Dr Ishaad Ebrahim, said that Mr Bilton did suffer from the condition and revealed that sleepwalkers could carry out actions that they did when awake. The court was told that between 1 and 2.5 per cent of the adult population suffered from the condition. Of those, 4 per cent carried out sexual behaviour.

Last month, a High Court judge threw out the case of a student who said that she had been raped while drunk and unconscious on the basis that “drunken consent is still consent”.

Only 5.6 per cent of Britain’s reported rape cases result in conviction in court, the lowest of any European country except the Irish Republic.

Michael O’Brien, the Solicitor-General, is sending proposals this week to the Bar Council and Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, after winning the backing of the ministerial committee on sexual offences. The package includes a definition of “capability” to give consent in cases where a victim may have been drinking or was asleep when the attack took place.

Other proposals include training judges and allowing expert witnesses to present “behavioural evidence”. Mr O’Brien has ruled out lowering the burden of proof in rape cases.

One of the main obstacles to a rape conviction is jurors’ attitude to female behaviour, according to police and legal experts. Now, for the first time, there may be a legal definition on whether a victim was able to grant consent, making it more difficult for alleged attackers to show that sex was consensual.

Whether the sexual history of a victim is relevant will be outlined at pre-trial hearings. It is hoped that this will prevent the defence raising traumatic past events unless they are exceptionally relevant.

Yvonne Traynor, of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre, said: “We have waited a long time for someone to listen to us about the miscarriage of justice during rape trials.”

Mr Bilton slumped forward in the dock as he was cleared on all counts. He left the court in tears, supported by friends and family, and declined to comment.

Although the defence of sleepwalking is extremely rare, the case follows a similar acquittal in Canada last month, when Jan Luedecke, 33, was acquitted of rape after a judge ruled that he was asleep at the time.

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