AN army captain is facing jail for raping a house guest - as his fiancée slept in the room next door.

Daniel Howard, 29, from Darlington, was found guilty today (Thursday, September 10) after a four-day trial at Teesside Crown Court.

He was accused of inventing a "ludicrous" explanation for forensic evidence linking him with the attack, claiming both must have independently used the same sex toy.

His DNA was found inside the woman's underwear and his semen was discovered on intimate swabs taken from her.

Even though experts said it was more likely to have been the result of intercourse, he said they could not be sure.

The panel of six men and six women took two-and-a-half hours yesterday afternoon to reach its unanimous verdict.

The judge, Recorder Andrew Sutcliffe, QC, will sentence Howard tomorrow (Friday, September 11) and granted him bail overnight as "an act of mercy".

In his closing speech earlier, Howard's barrister Paul Abrahams said the complainant had been "vague and unreliable" in her evidence."

He said the woman's account against Howard "did not add up" and the jury could not be sure she had been raped.

She said she had gone to bed in the spare room after a night drinking with Howard and his partner - now his wife.

In her evidence, she told the court Howard forced himself upon her, and warned: "Don't tell [his fiancee's name]."

The following morning, she tried to call her boyfriend, and rang a rape crisis line before driving to a hospital.

She had tried to pretend everything was normal when she got up, and Howard asked her: "Have you had a good time?"

Prosecutor Paul Cleasby told the jury: "It is clear she has no motive to make an allegation up against the defendant."

Howard wept in the dock as the jury came into court to deliver its verdict, and continued after the foreman announced 'guilty'.

The judge told Howard: "I am going to grant you bail overnight is you can prepare for the inevitable custodial sentence."

Mr Abrahams had said: "There is no risk of absconding in this case. Ordinarily, he is a man of discipline.

"Clearly, it is going to be a significant sentence of some length, but I ask that tonight, as a matter of mercy, he is allowed home to put his life - for what it is - in order, to get some possessions together to take with him and to say farewell to his wife."