A JURY has cleared a cocktail bar doorman of raping a stranger he met in a nightclub after finishing his shift as a bouncer.

Abderrfi Bahja told a court that the woman was "100 per cent" wanting sex when he gave her a lift home in his car last May.

He claimed she had twice put her hand down his trousers when they met in Harvey's, in Houndgate, Darlington.

Mr Bahja, 45, said the married mother-of-two also twice touched him intimately as he drove her home in the early hours.

He admitted having brief sex with the woman in the passenger seat of his Renault Megane, but said he had been "stupid and naive".

The Morocco-born economics graduate told the jury at Teesside Crown Court that he did not want to have sex with the woman.

He denied prosecution claims that he had "zoomed in on her" because she looked drunk and appeared to be alone in the club.

It was claimed that CCTV from the club showed Mr Bahja scouring the rooms looking for a vulnerable and drunk victim.

He denied the suggestion, and said the people who he could be seen speaking to were friends from his doorman job.

Mr Bahja, of Shelley Road, Darlington, told the jury of seven men and five women that he had been born in Casablanca.

He arrived in England, he said, 12 years ago, and also worked long hours as a delivery driver for parcel company DHL.

The jury heard that he was a doorman at a cocktail bar in Darlington, and went to the nightclub when his shift ended.

He claimed his experience of working in nightspots made him steer clear of drunken women because they could be "a danger".

He said some women sought out foreign men for sex, and there was a danger that false allegations could be made later.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Joanne Kidd, Mr Bahja denied he had been looking for a lone and vulnerable woman.

He told the jury that he chatted to the accuser, but later in his car she instigated sex, but he did not want it.

The father-of-one said he was sure the woman made up the allegation because she wanted to claim compensation cash.